Eizenkot Attacks Bennett-Lapid Merger for Excluding Him

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot criticized the newly announced political alliance between Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, saying he had pushed for months to build a broader centrist bloc and was only informed of their merger shortly before it became public.

Speaking to party activists Thursday, Eisenkot said he had tried about six months ago to organize what he called the “statesmanlike camp,” together with the liberal right, into a large political framework capable of defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The main alternative I tried to promote about six months ago was organizing the camp that the media calls center-left, and which I call the statesmanlike camp, that would go with the liberal right,” Eisenkot said in a recording published Sunday by Ynet.

Eisenkot said his goal had been to create an “optimized structure” that would win the maximum number of votes and avoid the fragmentation that hurt opposition parties in previous elections. Under his proposal, Bennett and Lapid would have joined a large centrist slate, while Yair Golan’s The Democrats and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would remain separate left- and right-wing alternatives.

That plan did not materialize. Eisenkot said he received a call informing him of the Bennett-Lapid union only minutes before it was announced publicly. Afterward, he said, Bennett and Lapid told him they had kept the second and third spots open for him.

“That’s not how you build partnerships,” Eisenkot said. “But I’m not insulted. I immediately picked up the phone and said let’s meet and continue to cooperate. What guides me is how we defeat this bad government and build an alternative.”

Eisenkot said he was not ruling out any merger and was focused on victory rather than personal grievances.

Bennett and Lapid announced their joint “Together” slate last month. Bennett called the move “the most Zionist and patriotic act we have ever done” and said “the era of division is over.” He also publicly invited Eisenkot to join the alliance.

Lapid reportedly offered to take third place on the list instead of second if it would help bring Eisenkot in, though Eisenkot’s associates dismissed the offer.

At the same time, Eisenkot has been deepening coordination with Liberman. The two issued a joint statement last week saying they were working to expand cooperation ahead of the election. A recent Zman Yisrael poll found that a combined Yashar-Yisrael Beytenu slate would win 26 seats, making it the largest faction in the Knesset.