Sunday’s merger announcement was received by many observers with surprise. The news apparently came as a surprise to Gadi Eisenkot as well, having reportedly been notified of Together’s establishment only minutes before the press conference began.
A union between Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, particularly absent a third faction, had been regarded by observers as an unlikely prospect considering Bennett’s campaign strategy of attracting disaffected coalition voters. Lapid’s perceived left-wing credentials were expected to dissuade the former prime minister — who previously led a party named “Rightwards” — from striking such a close alliance.
Yet Bennett appears to have calculated that the risks of affiliating with Lapid are outweighed by the benefits of solidifying his status as head of the opposition bloc, amid Eisenkot’s accumulating gains in the polls.
In polls conducted after the announcement, Bennett and Lapid’s Together party received between 24 and 27 seats, while Eisenkot’s Yashar was allocated 15 seats. Neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition garnered sufficient support for a parliamentary majority.
Eisenkot is expected to hold out on any possible plans to join Together until the limits of his political ascent become apparent. Early polling indicates that the joint Bennett-Lapid slate will produce fewer seats than if the politicians ran separately, with lost support transferring to Eisenkot. After the merger declaration, Eisenkot called on the major heads of the Zionist opposition to meet and coordinate their efforts.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians voted in last week’s PA local elections. Only one city in Gaza, Deir al-Balah, took part in the elections, representing 70,000 eligible voters compared to 1,000,000 eligible voters in the West Bank. Three out of the four winning lists in Deir al-Balah were independent or Fatah opposition slates, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas loyalists populating the fourth list.
Candidates loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas largely claimed victory across all races. Independent candidates contested several votes, but no faction outside of Abbas’ Fatah party formally submitted slates. In large cities such as Nablus and Ramallah, only a single slate registered, earning victory by default. Hamas was excluded from all votes by a PA decree requiring candidates to renounce armed violence — polls suggest Hamas remains the most popular group in Gaza and the West Bank. Overall voter turnout reached about 53%, not exceeding 23% in Gaza.
The PA is deeply unpopular among Palestinians and has faced mounting international pressure to undergo reform, leading PA President Abbas to dub 2026 the “year of Palestinian democracy”. Gaza’s symbolic inclusion in the elections is intended to signal a shared Palestinian political destiny, reinforcing the inseparability of the West Bank and Gaza.
Image: Naftali Bennett, המכללה האקדמית ספיר, CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication., via wikimedia commons.
