The battle for leadership of the anti-Netanyahu bloc ahead of the 2026 elections is intensifying. Channel 12 News reported on Sunday that in recent weeks, "Yashar!" party leader Gadi Eisenkot proposed a concrete internal blueprint to several bloc party leaders, aimed at preemptively shutting down ego clashes and the race for the premiership.
Under Eisenkot’s proposal, the bloc's party leaders would sign a gentlemen's agreement stipulating that whoever heads the party with the highest seat count on election day will automatically receive the endorsement of all bloc members before the President to form the government.
This proposal is a direct appeal not only to Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, but also to Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.
Liberman has repeatedly declared recently that he is aggressively eyeing the Prime Minister’s chair, despite recent polls projecting his party at just nine seats.
The immediate political fallout of this plan is clear: the "grand merger" scenario - a single joint slate uniting Bennett, Lapid, and Eisenkot under one roof - is officially off the table for the foreseeable future. Instead, the parties will run independently, competing head-to-head for the title of "largest party in the bloc."
Yet despite these attempts at compromise, tensions within the bloc remain high. Earlier on Sunday, reports surfaced that Naftali Bennett launched a sharp attack on Eisenkot following the disclosure of a secret meeting between the former IDF Chief of Staff and Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni.
Speaking at a closed-door political event over the weekend, Bennett addressed Eisenkot's efforts to reach an understanding with the haredi factions on the draft law, mocking the attempt: "It’s naive, simply naive. You enter negotiations with them, and then they'll ask you 'what are the exemption parameters?' What Gafni and Deri have already forgotten, Eisenkot and Yair Golan have yet to learn. Therefore, there is absolutely no room for dialogue here. It's that simple."