Former MK Gadi Eisenkot said he would join forces with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid to run together in a unified list for the upcoming elections, N12 reported on Tuesday.
Eisenkot announced in September last year that he would be running in the next elections with a new party called “Yashar!” and now plans to form a unified list to oppose the bloc led by Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the report, Eisenkot's proposal would determine who will lead the unified list only after winning the elections.
Bennett didn’t address Eisenkot's proposal, and his latest statement assured that he aims to become Israel’s next Prime Minister.
"I invite Netanyahu to a confrontation, anytime, anywhere. I'm not looking to humiliate Netanyahu; I intend to replace him. I need to bring everyone in, and I don't want to trample anyone. Just win," he said at an activists' conference in the city of Karmiel.
Eisenkot calls to resume war in Gaza
In a separate interview, Eisenkot, who served as the IDF chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, called for a return to combat operations in the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of Hamas’s military capabilities, stating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed to manage the country during the Israel-Hamas War.
“Two years and a quarter after the start of the war, the military achievements were not translated into a diplomatic outcome,” he said in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet on Tuesday.
“What is required of a responsible prime minister is to insist on dismantling Hamas’s military power, to condition Gaza’s rehabilitation on demilitarization, and to retain the security responsibility,” Eisenkot said, adding that the government’s stated goal of destroying Hamas’s governing and military capacity “has not been achieved.”
Shir Perets contributed to this report.