{"id":85119,"date":"2026-04-27T04:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/85119\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:13:08","slug":"netanyahus-biggest-rivals-join-forces-for-israels-coming-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/85119\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s biggest rivals join forces for Israel\u2019s coming election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s most formidable political rivals said on Sunday they were joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government in the coming election expected later this year.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The former prime ministers &#8211; right-wing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid &#8211; issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and There is a Future.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe are standing here together for the sake of our \u200cchildren. The State of Israel must change direction,\u201d Lapid said standing alongside Bennett at a joint news conference.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Bennett said the new party will be called Together, and that he will be its leader. \u201cAfter 30 years it is time to part with Netanyahu and open a new chapter for Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Since his first term in the 1990s, Netanyahu has become a polarising figure at home and abroad.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Bennett and Lapid have joined forces before, putting an end to Netanyahu\u2019s successive 12-year tenure in a 2021 election, only to form a coalition government that with a thin majority and deeply divided over major issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, survived barely 18 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s most formidable political rivals said on Sunday they were joining forces&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[30387,41,496,1411,100,34,37,1659,4028,4029,7888,30386,6489],"class_list":{"0":"post-85119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-arab-minority","9":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","10":"tag-gaza","11":"tag-hamas","12":"tag-hezbollah","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","16":"tag-knesset","17":"tag-naftali-bennett","18":"tag-palestinian","19":"tag-united-arab-list","20":"tag-yair-lapid"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116474727760974509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}