Yashar! Party leader Gadi Eisenkot pledged on Wednesday to put a member of the Druze ethnic minority in a "realistic place" on his party's list ahead of the upcoming elections.
Eisenkot's statement came during a tour of Druze towns and villages in the Carmel Region, including Daliat al-Carmel and Usfiya.
During his tour, Eisenkot met with council head Rafik Halabi and other senior members of the Druze community.
Eisenkot also met with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif.
Eisenkot announces Shaul Meridor joining Yashar! list
Eisenkot’s Yashar! Party has emerged as a leading party in the opposition bloc seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in elections expected to take place no later than October.
He has announced a group of members that will be on his list. Former Finance Ministry budget division head Shaul Meridor was the most recent addition on Tuesday.
Meridor previously served as director-general of the Energy Ministry and later as head of the Finance Ministry’s Budget Division.
Meridor resigned from the latter role in the Finance Ministry in 2020, saying it had become impossible to carry out his duties under then-finance minister Israel Katz. He opposed the policies advanced at the time, arguing they harmed public interests.
Meridor will join three other announced members of Eisenkot’s party list, including MKs and former ministers Matan Kahana and Orit Farkash-Hacohen, as well as Inbar Harush Gity, former director-general of the Aharai organization for at-risk youth.
The developments in Eisenkot’s party come as he has been invited by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid to join their newly merged party, Together.
Eisenkot has not accepted Bennett and Lapid’s request to unite and instead called on the opposition bloc on Sunday to focus on securing as many votes as possible.
He had previously been offered to join Bennett’s party, but said last month that he declined, as he did not want to serve as second-in-command.
On Monday, Eisenkot called on opposition leaders to convene a coordination meeting to secure a 61-seat “Zionist and statesmanlike” majority to unseat Netanyahu.
Eisenkot said he reached out on Monday to the parties he described as the “Hope Bloc.”
Among those invited to meet were Bennett and Lapid’s Together Party, MK Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, and the left-wing Democrats Party, led by Yair Golan.
MK Benny Gantz, who leads the Blue and White Party, was excluded from the invitation.
Kahana, who recently left Gantz’s party, said on Saturday that he would remain with Eisenkot despite speculation he might join Bennett. In the past, Kahana had supported a merger between the two camps.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Lapid on Sunday, Bennett suggested that Kahana could play a role in encouraging Eisenkot to join their alliance.