Five opposition leaders meet at Lapid's home, pledge not to attack each other

The leaders of five Israeli opposition parties met on Saturday, September 26, at Yair Lapid's home in Tel Aviv and afterwards released a signed statement of principles committing them to cooperate in the run-up to the October 27 election. According to The Times of Israel, the meeting lasted about an hour, and the signatories undertook to refrain from attacking one another during the campaign, to work to raise turnout for their camp and to set up joint working groups to prepare for a future government.

The participants were Gadi Eisenkot, who leads the Yashar party; Naftali Bennett, head of B'Yachad; Yair Lapid, who is second on the B'Yachad list; Yair Golan of the Democrats; and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu. Ynet reported that the group chose not to settle on a joint candidate for prime minister, and that the declaration did not mention Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by name. A group photograph from the meeting was published by Lihi Lapid, Yair Lapid's wife.

What the leaders signed

The document describes forming a new government as the shared overriding goal of the parties, while acknowledging ideological differences between them. In a post on X quoted by The Times of Israel's live blog, Golan wrote that the party heads had signed a common document on replacing the government and that they had a duty to act together to achieve it.

The government the signatories say they want is described in the text as "Zionist, statesmanlike", according to The Times of Israel. The declaration also calls the leaders united and determined, and speaks of bringing "correction and hope" to Israel.

The central pledge concerns campaign conduct. As quoted on the Telegram channel of political commentator Amit Segal, the document says that from now on none of the leaders, and no one acting on their behalf, will attack a partner party in the bloc or the person heading it. A Ynet news alert carried the same commitment.

Who the five are

All five are established figures in Israeli politics. Bennett and Lapid both served as prime minister in the coalition that briefly replaced Netanyahu earlier in the decade, and Lapid had led the opposition in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. The Jerusalem Post still describes him as opposition leader, while The Times of Israel identifies him as the second name on Bennett's B'Yachad list, which suggests the two men are now running together. Eisenkot is a former chief of the military's general staff, and Liberman leads a secular, right-leaning party whose base has historically included many immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Golan heads the Democrats, the party on the left of the group.

Why a bloc matters in Israeli elections

Israelis vote for party lists rather than individual candidates, and no single party has ever won a parliamentary majority on its own. Governments are therefore formed by coalitions, and election campaigns are often framed as a contest between blocs of parties expected to join forces afterwards. Hebrew-language media refer to this grouping as the "change bloc"; Golan, in his post, used the phrase "parties of repair", echoing the word "correction" in the joint declaration.

Parties within the same bloc frequently compete for the same voters, which is why attacks among nominal allies are common late in a campaign. The non-aggression pledge is aimed at that problem, with the stated aim of enlarging the bloc's overall vote rather than shifting support among its members.

A commentator's reading

Segal, writing on his Telegram channel, described the meeting, photograph and document as the product of pressure from the parties' own supporters, arguing that each participant understands an attack on bloc partners would hurt him. He questioned how long the arrangement would last, particularly the agreement to set aside the question of who leads, noting that three of the men want the premiership. This is his analysis rather than a reported fact.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports explains what happens if a party breaks the pledge, or whether any enforcement mechanism exists. They do not say which subjects the joint working groups will cover, who will staff them or when they will begin. The reports also do not say when, or how, the bloc intends to resolve the question of a candidate for prime minister, and none sets out the positions the parties share beyond the general language of the declaration. The Jerusalem Post report available to us was cut off and adds little detail beyond the attendance and location.