Amit Segal, the senior political commentator for Channel 12, addressed the announcement by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid about their joint election run, noting that they avoided answering the real questions voters have about their partnership.

“A government is made up of two things: governance and ideology,” Amit stated. “The Bennett-Lapid list needs to tell what its positions are. For example, on judicial reform—we have Yair Lapid, who went out on the streets during the Kaplan protests, and Bennett, who stayed home, and a few years ago said that soldiers are more afraid of the Military Advocate General than of Yahya Sinwar.”

“Bennett says he won’t give even a single centimeter to the enemy—how does that align with Lapid’s speech as prime minister at the UN General Assembly? Does he no longer believe that settlers should be evacuated?”

“The biggest question is the makeup of the next coalition. According to all the polls, this alliance doesn’t have enough seats for a 61-member government. So what do they do then? Reach out to Binyamin Netanyahu? To Betzalel Smotrich? Or run to [the Arab parties] Ra’am and the Joint List? They will have to answer all these questions in the six months left until the election.”

Segal also explained that Yair Lapid, whose party was dangerously close to political extinction, according to the polls, joined Bennett out of a lack of choice. “Despite Lapid’s denials, it was clear he couldn’t run alone, because the electoral threshold was getting dangerously close. Last Sunday, he met with Bennett and told him, ‘I’ll go with you and be number two.’ Most of the list belongs to Bennett. Yesh Atid will receive representation that according to current polls, it could only have dreamed of.”

“This is a huge election gamble,” Segal emphasized. “Among right-wing voters in the polls, Yair Lapid is in the same territory as Yair Golan in terms of unpopularity. On one hand, this looks like a move that could cost Bennett right-wing mandates—the asset with which he is going to the election.”

“Their announcement of a joint run is their way of saying: this is not like 2021, when Bennett deceived voters. This time, they’re openly declaring that they’re going to form a coalition. In their view, for a voter tired of Netanyahu, angry at Smotrich, and disappointed with Itamar Ben-Gvir, it doesn’t really matter whether Lapid will be a senior minister because he’s in the coalition or because he’s in the party.”

In an English-language analysis, Segal emphasized that the new alliance likely secures Bennett’s status as the leader of the anti-Netanyahu bloc, albeit at the cost of surrendering his right-wing base. This means that “barring a dramatic last-minute shift, it establishes that the battle for the prime ministership will likely be a direct contest between Bennett and Netanyahu.”

Segal added: “This is, I believe, the first time in the history of Israel’s political system that the leader of the opposition has secured a reserved spot on another party’s list.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)