Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has reportedly examined the possibility of ending his political alliance with Yair Lapid and running independently, as the joint political partnership faces declining poll numbers and growing internal tensions.
According to the a report by Channel 13, Bennett has recently weighed dissolving the alliance amid concerns that the partnership has failed to maintain its early momentum. The discussions come after reports last week that senior members of Bennett’s campaign privately referred to Lapid as “a disaster,” reflecting deep disagreements within the leadership.
Sources close to Bennett reportedly believe Lapid’s involvement has pushed away right-wing voters who previously supported Bennett. At the same time, campaign officials are said to have engaged in significant internal disputes over strategy, with newly appointed strategist Lior Horev reportedly struggling to reverse the coalition’s slide in the polls.
Despite the internal discussions, it remains unclear whether Bennett will ultimately move forward with breaking up the partnership or remain aligned with Lapid heading into the next election campaign.
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One Response
This is a merger that should never have happened in the first place. Many potential Bennett voters are fundamentally on the right, though part of the “pragmatic” as opposed to “ideological” right. As such, they’re OK with joining a coalition with parties to their left, like Yesh Atid and even Labor/Meretz, but want their specific “rightest” party to be as large as possible, so as to maximize the right-wing policies of the government.
In merging with Lapid, Bennett lost a substantial chunk of these voters. This is as any vote for such a merged party is no longer a straight vote for the right – the candidate list will presumably have some rightests, but will also have a significant number of centrist or center-left candidates that the classic Bennett voter does not support. Accordingly, that voter will go looking for something else – with Lieberman actually being a potential beneficiary.
This merger was therefore a bad fit from the start. While the two parties are a good fit in a coalition, the political views of their voters are different enough to run separately – since if they run together, the whole is most definitely less than the sum of the parts.
This is an analysis, not an opinion.
an Israeli Yid