Former Israeli PMs Bennett and Lapid announce party merger ahead of Knesset elections

Former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced Sunday that they will merge their parties into a unified list ahead of the upcoming Knesset elections, which must be held no later than October.

The outline of the merger came into sharper focus Sunday afternoon when Bennett’s office said that he and Lapid plan to “announce the first step in the process of healing the State of Israel: the merger of the Yesh Atid party and the Bennett 2026 party into a unified party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.”

“This move unites the ‘reform bloc,’ puts an end to internal infighting, and allows for all efforts to be invested toward a decisive victory in the upcoming elections and to lead Israel toward the necessary reform.”

The announcement came just a few days after a poll published by Israel's Maariv news site showed that a party led by Bennett would have roughly the same level of support as the Likud party led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The same poll projected Lapid’s Yesh Atid at seven mandates – a sharp drop from the 24 it won in the 2022 Knesset elections.

Bennett is said to be in ongoing discussions with other political leaders, including the Yashar party chief. former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot.

Bennett’s campaign has so far focused on a promise to build consensus and advance policies aimed at improving the day-to-day lives of Israelis. His approach to longer-term issues, where there is less agreement, remains less clearly defined.

Born in the northern city of Haifa, Bennett is the son of American Jewish immigrants from San Francisco and spent part of his youth in Montreal, Canada, as well as Teaneck, New Jersey, due to his father’s employment.

When he was 18, Bennett enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the elite Sayeret Matkal and Maglan units. He rose through the ranks to become a small-unit commander and led several combat operations during his service before transitioning to the reserves and launching a civilian career in the software and computer industry.

This proved to be a very fruitful endeavor and he became a multimillionaire before the age of 35.

In 2006, Bennett became chief of staff to then-Prime Minister Netanyahu and remained in that post until 2008. In 2010, he became director of the Yesha Council, the body overseeing civil affairs for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. In 2012, he was elected leader of the Jewish Home party, which represented this community in politics. The party received 12 mandates in the 2013 elections under Bennett’s leadership.

As part of the agreement that brought the Jewish Home party into the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu in the 19th Knesset, Bennett was appointed minister of economy and religious services. In 2015, he was later appointed minister of education.

He served under Netanyahu from 2013 to 2015, and after the spring 2015 elections was appointed education minister, a position he held until the April 2019 Knesset elections, in which he lost his seat. Bennett returned to the Knesset a few months later, following the September 2019 snap election, this time under the New Right party. He was appointed minister of defense and served for several months before leaving ahead of another election, in which he led a new party, Yamina, which won six mandates.

In the next election in June 2021, Yamina won seven mandates, and Bennett entered into an agreement with Lapid for a rotational prime ministership, with Bennett going first and serving in that role until 2023, when he would turn it over to Lapid to serve out the remaining two years until 2025.

Bennett’s coalition lost its governing majority after members of his own party and other coalition partners defected.

In June 2022, just a year into his term, he announced that he would seek a vote to dissolve the Knesset and step down as prime minister upon its dissolution, with Lapid set to succeed him.

A few days later, on June 29, Bennett announced that he was taking a break from politics and would not seek re-election in the next polls later that year.

This break ended last year, in April 2025, when Bennett announced he was forming a new party and would run in the next elections.

ALL ISRAEL NEWS editor-in-chief and the host of THE ROSENBERG REPORT, Joel Rosenberg, met with Bennett last week for an interview in Tel Aviv that will be covered in upcoming episodes of the program, which airs at 9 p.m. eastern on Thursdays on TBN, the most-watched Christian television network in the United States.

“My intent is to win, become Israel’s next prime minister, unite Israel, and then bring in the best era Israel has ever seen of growth, of security and of unity,” Bennett told Rosenberg.

He believes Israelis are craving political, social and cultural unity after war and deep and traumatic divisions and that he is the only leader who can bring such unity, with a record to prove it.

Bennett said he is running to bring about “an Israeli renaissance,” telling Rosenberg that he aims to lead Israel to become “The Solution Nation,” a country whose technological innovations could solve many global problems.