Overview
- Two former prime ministers, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, unveiled a joint list Sunday branded Beyahad or Yachad under Bennett’s leadership to try to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu in elections due by late October.
- Press polls cited by Maariv place the Bennett list roughly level with Likud at about 24 seats, with analysts saying the bloc could reach about 60 seats if smaller anti-Netanyahu parties join.
- Netanyahu’s allies moved to discredit the alliance, as Itamar Ben Gvir accused the pair of partnering with an Arab party and Likud circulated AI-generated images showing Mansour Abbas alongside them.
- Bennett cast the project as a broad but explicitly Zionist slate and invited Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar to join, while saying he would not rely on Arab parties to form a government.
- The launch comes as Netanyahu contends with long-running corruption trials and reported International Criminal Court action, with a planned court appearance canceled for security reasons and no immediate presidential pardon granted.