Overview
- Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid unveiled a united ticket on Sunday called Together, led by Bennett, to run a joint list in an election due by October 2026.
- Their platform centers on a state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, a universal draft law, and an eight‑year limit for prime ministers, with Bennett saying any future coalition would include only Zionist parties and exclude Arab-led factions.
- Universal conscription would revisit long-standing exemptions for many ultra‑Orthodox men, a flashpoint that the army says strains manpower and that many secular Israelis view as an unequal burden.
- Gadi Eisenkot congratulated the move and signaled willingness to work with the new bloc, while Netanyahu and coalition ministers attacked the alliance, and Bennett publicly invited Eisenkot to join.
- Recent polling cited by Israeli outlets shows the new bloc competitive with Likud yet still short of a clear majority, and some analyses suggest combining the parties may not increase seats enough to cross the 61-seat threshold, reviving questions from their short-lived 2021–2022 partnership.