Hebrew Channel: Eizenkot Proposes to Bennett and Lapid to Form a List to Dethrone Netanyahu

Translation by SadaNews - Hebrew Channel 12 revealed on Tuesday evening that former general Gadi Eizenkot, leader of the newly established "Straight" Party, has proposed to Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid to form a single list to jointly contest the upcoming elections.

According to the Hebrew channel, as translated by SadaNews, he suggested forming a unified centrist list to lead an opposition bloc against Benjamin Netanyahu and the current government coalition.

Eizenkot presented parts of his proposal during talks he held with Bennett and Lapid.

According to Eizenkot's proposal, it will not be determined who will lead this unified list until later, to be chosen before the elections, with the candidate expected to be the most likely to win based on opinion polls and in-depth studies.

He noted that the aim is to achieve early and swift communication, to present the coalition as a centrist coalition from the outset, and to unify ranks in a single move that maintains Eizenkot's centrism, without showing favoritism to any side.

The idea is to form a massive list that includes 30 or even 40 seats, which would exceed the number of seats held by the Likud party by a significant margin.

So far, Bennett and Lapid have not issued any public response to the proposal made to them.

The latest Israeli opinion polls indicate that Naftali Bennett's party will win 22 seats, making his party the second-largest after the Likud, led by Netanyahu, which won 26 seats, while Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party secured 9 seats, and Eizenkot's "Straight" party obtained 8 seats.

In response to a question about their suitability for the Israeli premiership against Netanyahu, all three received lower ratings than Netanyahu, while Bennett received the highest level of support among the three, followed by Eizenkot and then Lapid.