On September 26, five leading figures in Israel’s opposition, who describe their camp as Zionist, signed a non-aggression pact aimed at removing the incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the October 27 election. The signing took place at the Tel Aviv home of opposition leader Yair Lapid after a meeting that lasted several hours. Alongside Lapid were former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the Beyachad list; former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, head of the new Yashar party; Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats; and Avigdor Liberman, who heads Yisrael Beiteinu.
In a statement of principles released after the meeting, the leaders said, “Despite ideological differences among us, the formation of a Zionist, statesmanlike government dedicated to repair and reconstruction is our shared overarching goal.” It remains unclear, however, whether the group would bring real change in substance rather than only in tone, or which of its members might lead a future coalition.
A shared right-wing outlook on the Palestinian question
Apart from Golan, the leaders all take a broadly right-wing approach to Israel’s challenges. None of them is committed to creating a Palestinian state. Only the Democrats mention one at all, and they treat it as a distant goal without a defined timeline.
None of the five, Golan included, accepts that Israel’s war on Gaza amounts to genocide or that Israel has committed war crimes in killing more than 74,000 people there. Nor has any of them questioned Israeli military operations in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Qatar or Iran. Their criticism is mostly directed at how those operations have affected Israel’s image abroad.
Ahron Bregman, an Israeli analyst and senior teaching fellow at King’s College London, said that “The dominant forces in the opposition such as Bennett, Liberman or Eisenkot represent right-wing politics.” He argued that these figures avoid the core issue, the Palestinian demand for independence. Bregman compared them to Netanyahu but said they lack his corruption allegations and his alliances with far-right figures such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “Israel as a whole is a right-wing nation,” he added.
Eisenkot’s profile, platform and stance on Washington
Eisenkot is credited with originating the Dahiyeh Doctrine in 2008, a approach that involves “disproportionate force” and large-scale damage to civilian infrastructure against groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. He served as Israeli military chief from 2015 to 2019. The 66-year-old entered politics in 2022 with former defence minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity alliance. He later joined the war cabinet that Netanyahu formed after the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
In December 2023, his son Gal, 25, and two nephews were killed while fighting in Gaza, according to the report. Commentators say such losses have helped him build a bond with voters who see themselves as scarred by war. In June 2024, Eisenkot left the war cabinet together with Gantz, accusing Netanyahu of having no strategy to end the war. A year later he founded the centrist Yashar party, which is called Straight or Honest in translation. It backs professional government, military service for all, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, and a state commission of inquiry into the failures before October 7.
Eisenkot is often vague on many foreign policy questions. He has, however, criticised the government’s reliance on the United States to reach its war aims, without questioning the aims themselves. In June he described Washington’s mediated talks with Tehran, aimed at ending the war against Iran that the US had launched alongside Israel, as a deal taking shape far from Israeli interests. The same month, he criticised US limits on Israel’s freedom of action in Lebanon. He has also ruled out bringing the United Arab List, or Ra’am, into a post-election coalition. In a September 26 interview with Channel 12, he said no Arab party would accept his conditions, including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
Bennett and Lapid’s Beyachad list and Lieberman’s hawkish line
Beyachad, which means Together, is a joint list announced in April 2026 by Bennett and Lapid. The two former prime ministers served a combined 18 months in 2021 and 2022, between Netanyahu governments. Bennett, 54, heads the list, while Lapid, 62, the founder of the centrist Yesh Atid party, is in second place. Lapid has described his partner as “a right-wing politician, but an honest one.” Neither has made resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a priority or backed a Palestinian state. Bennett has acknowledged that his 2021 coalition, which included Ra’am, broke an electoral promise.
Lapid has been among the most vocal critics of how Israel’s operations in Gaza and against its neighbours are seen abroad, but he rarely challenges the reasoning behind them. Bennett is more openly hawkish. He strongly supports the war on Iran and praised Israel’s military and security services for a September 2025 strike on Qatar’s capital, Doha, which targeted senior Hamas leaders meeting to discuss a Gaza ceasefire proposal from the US. A Qatari security official was killed in the attack, which drew condemnation across the region and beyond. The two now want a government made up only of Zionist parties and also rule out relying on Arab parties.
Liberman, 68, is the most hawkish voice at the table. He founded Yisrael Beiteinu, or Israel Our Home, in 1999 to represent right-leaning Russian-speaking immigrants. Once a protege of Netanyahu, he has ruled out serving under him or joining a coalition that includes the ultra-Orthodox or depends on Arab parties, which he calls anti-Zionist. He has also rejected a minority government, a stance that reportedly makes him a major obstacle to Eisenkot becoming the bloc’s prime ministerial candidate.
In November 2023, Liberman repeated a 2018 claim, made while he was defence minister, that there were “no innocents in Gaza.” In February he visited the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known to Israelis as Kerem Shalom, and accused Netanyahu’s government of funding Hamas by allowing the limited humanitarian aid that has entered Gaza. In September 2025 he criticised Netanyahu for apologising to Doha after a strike that the Trump administration had pressed him to apologise for, saying the apology was owed to the Israeli public instead. He has also argued against restraint in Israel’s operations in Lebanon. Speaking to the Jerusalem Post in March, he said: “If once again we go for a limited operation, some manoeuvre near the border, maybe talk about a security zone, it’s complete madness.”
Israeli analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, of Atlas Global Strategies, said “Lieberman does not belong in this bloc,” arguing that his main motivation was hatred of Netanyahu. Ben-Ephraim also said Liberman “maintains a loyal base and is a crucial force in Israeli politics.” His core support comes from voters of former Soviet background, but he has gained wider trust by appearing independent. Observers say he could eventually return to Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc.
Golan’s position as the bloc’s only left-leaning voice
Golan is the only leader at the table from the Zionist left and the only one open to working with Palestinian parties. He heads the Democrats, a liberal party formed in 2024 through a merger of Labor and the social democratic, secular Meretz. A retired major-general and former deputy chief of staff, the 64-year-old earned praise at home for driving south during the 2023 Hamas-led attack and helping to repel it.
Golan stands apart from the rest of the anti-Netanyahu bloc by criticising the government’s war aims. He argues that military gains are being wasted without a coherent diplomatic and political strategy. In May 2025, two years into the war in Gaza, he caused controversy at a news conference by saying that a “sane country does not kill babies as a hobby” and accusing ministers of celebrating the starvation of Palestinian children. He later retracted the remarks after wide criticism in Israel. In October, while praising the previous year’s 12-day war against Iran, he told party members that the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the conflict was a “mistake.” He added, “Not because he didn’t deserve to die, only because it doesn’t serve the interests of the State of Israel.”
Despite his openness to Palestinian parties, Golan backed the disqualification in September of Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Arab Balad party, over an article about October 7. The move drew criticism from the Joint List, an alliance of the Arab-led Hadash, Ta’al and Balad parties, as well as from commentators. Roi Zur, a University of Essex specialist in Israeli politics, said that despite the ideological gaps between Golan and Liberman on security and conflict, there would be “no winning coalition without these two.” Zur said concerns about a clash between them miss the point, since both oppose Netanyahu, favour secularisation and strongly oppose exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
