Lapid and Golan meet to coordinate on forming an Israeli government

Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, met Yair Golan, chair of the Democrats party, to coordinate their next steps toward forming a government. Lapid wrote on X that he had met Golan a short while earlier and that the two had worked on coordinating moves aimed at establishing what he called a good government for Israel. He tagged Golan's account in the post.

The meeting was also reported by two Israeli outlets, each of which placed it alongside separate talks taking place among other parties. Ynet's news alerts channel reported that Lapid and Golan met to coordinate moves as a negotiating session on unity between Likud and the Yashar! party came to an end. Political commentator Amit Segal reported that the meeting happened in the shadow of a meeting between representatives of Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett.

Who the two leaders are

Yair Lapid leads Yesh Atid, a centrist party, and has previously served as prime minister. Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, chairs the Democrats, a left-of-centre party formed through the merger of the Labor party and Meretz. Both men have positioned themselves as opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and their parties have generally been counted in the same political camp.

Neither Lapid's post nor the two news reports described what specific steps the two leaders agreed on, which other parties they intend to approach, or whether the coordination involves a joint negotiating position.

The parallel talks

The two outlets describe the other set of talks differently. Ynet referred to a unity negotiation meeting between Likud, the party led by Netanyahu, and Yashar!, the party led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Segal described a meeting involving people representing Netanyahu, Eisenkot and Bennett, the former prime minister who leads his own party. Ynet's alert did not mention Bennett, and Segal's report did not use the word unity. The reports therefore agree that representatives of Netanyahu and Eisenkot met, but differ on whether Bennett's side took part.

Talks between Likud and Eisenkot's party would be notable because Eisenkot, like Lapid and Golan, has been a critic of Netanyahu. Neither outlet reported the content or outcome of that meeting.

How Israeli governments are formed

Israel elects its parliament, the Knesset, by proportional representation, and no single party has ever won a majority on its own. A government is formed when a party leader assembles a coalition of parties that together command a majority of Knesset members. The President of Israel formally assigns the task of forming a government to the member considered most likely to succeed, after consulting the parties.

That process makes the period of coalition building one of intense contacts between party leaders, with parallel meetings among potential partners and rivals often taking place on the same day. Coordination between two parties from the same camp, such as the one Lapid described, is one way leaders try to strengthen their hand before or during those negotiations. The phrase "forming a government" in Lapid's post reflects that context.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports say what Lapid and Golan concretely agreed, and Golan's own account of the meeting has not been reported. The outcome of the talks involving Likud and Eisenkot's party is not described, and the sources disagree on whether Bennett's representatives were present. No response from Netanyahu, Eisenkot or Bennett to the Lapid and Golan meeting has been reported.