Head of the Yisrael Beytenu MK Avigdor Liberman requested a meeting to formulate “guiding principles” for the next government with heads of Zionist opposition parties, along with former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot and former prime minister Naftali Bennett.
The request was sent to Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) in an official letter on Wednesday, reflecting the intent to begin preparing for the next elections, currently scheduled for October 2026.
Liberman requested that the meeting be held “as soon as possible” to allow for the formulation of the guiding principles, which “must reflect broad agreements on the central issues on the national agenda.”
Among the issues listed by Liberman to be discussed were security, economy, the establishment of a constitution, military service in the country, and the separation of religion and state.
“It is up to us to work together and create a shared foundation for action,” he wrote in the letter.
Liberman’s inclusion of Eisenkot in the letter comes after Eisenkot resigned from the Knesset and left MK Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party in June. Since then, polls have shown that a party under Eisenkot’s leadership could be among the leading parties in the next elections.
Eisenkot said that he would “do everything to ensure that this bad government does not continue in office,” in a KAN Reshet Bet interview on Tuesday.
Eisenkot also said he did not rule out the possibility of announcing that he will run for prime minister in the coming elections.
“When I say I will do everything, it includes the possibility of announcing that I will run for prime minister,” he said.
“Right now, it’s too early, but there are very good candidates. I am currently busy building a governmental alternative,” Eisenkot added.
Bennett, also included in Liberman’s letter, officially registered a political party under the name “Bennett 2026” back in April this year.
Bennett and Lapid had formed a national unity government in June 2021. During the coalition agreement, Bennett served as prime minister from June 2021 until July 2022, with Lapid succeeding him until the government was dissolved in December 2022.
Bennett's party outpaces Netanyahu's Likud in recent polls
A Friday Maariv poll showed that Bennett’s party took the lead with 23 seats, beating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which came in second with 21 seats.
While Gantz's Blue and White Party failed to pass the electoral threshold in the poll, it also showed that the opposition bloc strengthened, rising to 61 Knesset seats. The poll was conducted for Maariv by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with the online respondent panel Panel4All.
Liberman had stated that Blue and White head MK Benny Gantz "is not part of the opposition” when speaking to Army Radio on Tuesday.
Liberman also slammed Gantz’s “hostage redemption government proposal” on Sunday, which called for Netanyahu, Lapid, and Liberman to join forces with him to create a temporary government that would have set targets, which included returning the hostages held in Hamas captivity.