Yair Netanyahu Calls for Right-Wing Unity Before Elections

Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched a social media campaign this week pressuring right-wing parties to consolidate before Israel's 2026 elections. In a series of sharp posts, the younger Netanyahu warned that vote-splitting among nationalist factions could hand power to a left-wing coalition.

"Winter will recommend Liberman for prime minister. That's pretty clear," Netanyahu wrote Thursday morning on X (formerly Twitter), referring to former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's new political partner Ofer Winter and veteran politician Avigdor Liberman. His online activity appears designed to assist his father's efforts to prevent right-wing fragmentation as party registration deadlines approach, focusing particularly on smaller lists hovering near the electoral threshold, the minimum percentage of votes needed to enter Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

Later that day, Netanyahu responded to Noam party leader Avi Maoz, who had published a poll claiming his party would receive 6.59% support. The survey, conducted among Channel 14's WhatsApp subscribers, showed results dramatically different from professional polling. "Enough already," Netanyahu wrote. "You know there's no chance in the world you'll pass the threshold. Your only contribution will be burning right-wing votes that will help the Eisenkot-Yair Golan-Arab parties bloc reach 61 seats and form a government."

Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu responded to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had posted about funding for wounded IDF veterans. "You're right," Netanyahu wrote. "And on another matter, if you don't unite with Ben-Gvir, you're playing Russian roulette with the country's fate and could install a government of the Muslim Brotherhood, Liberman, Yair Golan, and Eisenkot."

He continued with a warning grounded in recent political history: "Even if you're passing the threshold in polls, that doesn't mean it will happen in reality. Moshe Feiglin was polling at 10 seats in 2019 and ended up not passing the threshold at all." Netanyahu invoked an even older cautionary tale: "Don't make the mistake that Geula Cohen and Rabbi Levinger made in 1992, when they refused to unite and led to the Rabin government and the Oslo disaster", a reference to the peace accords that remain deeply controversial in Israel's right wing.

"I know you can't stand each other. So what?" Netanyahu wrote bluntly. "Nobody asked you to marry each other. We're just talking about a technical bloc that will split back into your separate factions immediately after the election."

Ofer Winter and Yoseph Haddad (Amkha Yisrael Party)

Netanyahu also targeted Ofer Winter's new party. At midday, he responded to party candidate Yoseph Haddad, an Arab-Israeli activist, who had shared a screenshot of coverage from the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. "Haaretz and Liberman in the same camp... and Liberman and Winter in the same camp," Netanyahu commented, suggesting guilt by association.

When National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a message of solidarity with Yair Netanyahu regarding what he called "persecution by some obsessive journalists," Netanyahu thanked him, then delivered the same merger appeal he'd sent Smotrich. "And on another matter, if you don't unite with Smotrich, you're playing Russian roulette with the country's fate and could install a government of the Muslim Brotherhood, Liberman, Yair Golan, and Eisenkot. Even if Smotrich is passing the threshold in polls, that doesn't mean it will happen in reality."

He repeated the Feiglin precedent and the 1992 historical example before concluding with the same message: "I know you can't stand each other. So what? Nobody asked you to marry each other. We're just talking about a technical bloc that will split back into your separate factions immediately after the election."