Bennett, Lapid Merge Parties to Challenge Netanyahu

Former Israeli prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced Sunday they are merging their parties to form a joint list called "Together" (Beyahad) for the upcoming Knesset elections, in a direct challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. Bennett will lead the new party, which both politicians said represents the most "Zionist and patriotic" step they have taken for the country. The announcement came as opinion polls consistently show Bennett as the strongest contender capable of defeating Netanyahu, whose security credentials have suffered following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that plunged Israel into war. Netanyahu swiftly responded by posting a 2021 photograph to his personal X/Twitter account showing Bennett and Lapid signing a coalition agreement with Mansour Abbas, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated United Arab List (Ra'am), with the caption "They did it once, they will do it again." His Likud Party and members of his governing coalition intensified the criticism, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharing AI-generated images attacking the former prime ministers. Meanwhile, opposition figures including Blue and White chair Benny Gantz, Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, and Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman offered varying degrees of support for the merger, with Eisenkot describing the goal of winning the elections as "a shared goal." Bennett and Lapid previously governed together from June 2021 until June 2022, forming a historically diverse coalition that included an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history, before it collapsed and gave way to Netanyahu's current administration. Bennett, a 54-year-old former commando officer and tech entrepreneur, has since become a vocal critic of his former mentor, while Lapid, 62, a former television journalist and founder of Yesh Atid, served briefly as caretaker prime minister. Bennett announced plans to establish a national commission of inquiry into the failures leading up to the October 7 attack and called on Eisenkot to join the unified list. Israel's general election must be held no later than the end of October, with the 76-year-old Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister with over 18 cumulative years in office, preparing to lead his Likud Party into what polls suggest could be a closely contested race.