Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right Yamina party, and Yair Lapid, leader of the "There is a Future" party, announced their alliance to form a unity government to replace the government of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the following report, a brief description of these two hopefuls to overthrow the longest-serving prime minister in Israel:
Yair Lapid
Lapid was born in November 1963 in Tel Aviv, where his support is concentrated, and his father, Tommy Lapid, was a journalist and Minister of Justice.
As for his mother, Shulamit, she is a writer of famous detective novels in Israel, who published a series of investigations starring a journalist.
Yair Lapid began working for Maariv newspaper, and later for Yedioth Ahronoth, the most widely circulated among Israeli newspapers, which allowed him to become known in Israel.
In parallel, he continued his sporadic activities. He practiced boxing and trained in martial arts. He also wrote police novels and television series, composed and performed songs, and even played roles in films.
But it was television that allowed him to establish itself as a model for the average Israeli, and his television talk show in the 2000s achieved the largest audience.
Lapid - who presents himself as a secular liberal patriot - managed to close the ranks of the center, while receiving condemnation among the ultra-Orthodox.
He gained increasing credibility from his beginnings in politics, until he became the main opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli president chose him on Wednesday to form the next government.
When he retired from television in 2012 to found his Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, critics accused him of using his popularity as a successful presenter to win over the middle class.
After about 10 years, Yair Lapid continued his political career, especially after President Reuven Rivlin tasked him with forming the next government after Netanyahu failed in the task.
After his centrist party came in second in the March 23 legislative elections, garnering 17 parliamentary seats, Lapid set himself a declared goal of firing the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, after he was indicted in a corruption case.
The head of the Israeli far-right Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, announced on Sunday his intention to join the Lapid camp.
Lapid ran in the previous legislative elections in March 2020 within the centrist Blue and White coalition led by General Benny Gantz, but withdrew from it after Gantz concluded an agreement with the Netanyahu government.
Support for Gantz waned, while Lapid became the leader of the opposition.
Naftali Bennett
Bennett - a former soldier in the Special Forces - was born on March 25, 1972 to parents born in the United States, and lives with his wife Galit and 4 children in the city of Ra'anana in central Israel.
Bennett served in the prestigious Sayeret Matkal unit like Netanyahu, and entered politics after selling his tech start-up for $145 million in 2005. The following year, he became Netanyahu's chief of staff, who was then in opposition.
After leaving Netanyahu's office, he became - in 2010 - the head of the settlement council in "Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the occupied West Bank) and Gaza", which works for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Bennett revolutionized politics in 2012, when he took charge of a far-right Jewish Home party that was facing the prospect of losing all of its seats in parliament.
He succeeded in enhancing his parliamentary presence fourfold, after he made a series of fiery statements about the conflict with the Palestinians.
In 2013, he said that “Palestinian terrorists should be killed, not released.” He also said that the West Bank is not under occupation because “there was no Palestinian state here,” and that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved.” Palestinian state.
In addition to his defense portfolio, Bennett served as Minister of Economy and Education in the Netanyahu government. In 2018, he renamed the Jewish Home party Yamina (R).
Despite his right-wing religious background, Bennett does not refrain from shaking hands with women and is not concerned with questions about the place of religion in the country, and he has liberal ideas about certain values, especially with regard to issues of the gay community.
Naftali Bennett imposed himself on the political scene in Israel until he came close to ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he may replace him in his position after he was his "disciple".
On Sunday, Bennett announced his intention to join the camp of opposition leader Yair Lapid, who is trying to form a government coalition that would remove Netanyahu from power.
Bennett adopts a hard-line nationalist religious rhetoric, leads the Yamina party that supports settlements and Israel's annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, and calls for a hard-line policy toward Iran.
If he takes the position, he will be the first prime minister of a hard-line religious government in the history of Israel, after he held 5 previous ministerial portfolios, including the Ministry of Defense in 2020.
Despite his party's somewhat weak result in the last elections in Israel in March 2021, Bennett managed in recent weeks to be a "kingmaker" in light of the ongoing talks to form a government coalition.
Bennett was part of Benjamin Netanyahu's government that collapsed in 2018, and since 2013 he has held 5 ministerial portfolios, the last of which was defense in 2020.
Evan Gottesman of the Israel Policy Forum says Bennett represents "the version tailored to the [Israeli] audience that is desperate to replace Netanyahu".