5 Things to Know About Israel’s New Opposition Party, “Together”

1. The Together coalition’s policies towards the Palestinians differ little from Israel’s current far-right government.

• Together leader and co-founder Naftali Bennett is categorically opposed to Palestinian statehood while co-founder Yair Lapid has supported a two-state solution in theory but with so many conditions that any Palestinian political entity that results from it would be shorn of any sovereignty or territorial contiguity.
• Bennett and Lapid are both staunch backers of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
• When announcing the formation of Together, Bennett said that under his leadership Israel would never withdraw from the territories it militarily occupies, declaring: “[We] will not hand over a single centimeter to the enemy.”

2. Bennett and Lapid were key players in previous Netanyahu governments.

• A former member of the Likud party, Bennett was Netanyahu’s chief of staff from 2006-2008. As the leader of the Jewish Home and Yamina parties, he was a key partner in several Netanyahu coalition governments, holding numerous senior positions, including defense minister (2019-2020), economy minister (2013-2015), and education minister (2015-2019).
• Lapid and his Yesh Atid party were a key part of Netanyahu’s coalition government from 2013-2014, with Lapid serving as finance minister.

3. Bennett has described himself as “more right-wing” than Netanyahu and wants to annex most of the West Bank.

• Bennett, who is a former head of the main political body representing Israeli settlers in the West Bank, wants to formally annex the 60% of the West Bank where most Israeli settlements are located.
• After the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in October 2023, Bennett declared his support for Israel’s total blockade on Gaza, a war crime, stating “I’m not going to feed electricity to my enemies.” When asked by a journalist about Palestinian civilians, including babies, on life support in Gaza hospitals who might die from a lack of electricity, he responded: “Are you seriously keep on asking me about Palestinian civilians? What’s wrong with you?”
• In 2018, when asked if he would order Israeli soldiers to shoot and kill Palestinian children during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza, Bennett said, “They are not children — they are terrorists.” At that point, at least 140 protesters had been killed by Israeli soldiers, including at least 29 children.
• In 2013, Bennett sparked controversy when during a cabinet meeting on releasing Palestinian prisoners he declared: “If we capture terrorists, we need to just kill them… I’ve already killed a lot of Arabs in my life - and there is no problem with that.”

4. Lapid wants “maximum Jews on maximum land” with “minimum Palestinians” and to expand Israel’s borders to what they were in the Bible.

• Lapid has said his guiding principle regarding the occupied Palestinian territories is to ensure “maximum Jews on maximum land with maximum security and with minimum Palestinians.”
• In February 2026, in reply to a question about U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s claim that Jews have a right to take virtually the entire Middle East, Lapid said that he supports expanding Israel’s borders “as broad as possible” as described in the Bible, including not only all of Palestine, but Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. While noting practical considerations prevent Israel from doing so at the moment, he explained: “Yesh Atid’s position is quite clear - Zionism is based on the Bible. Our mandate over the Land of Israel is biblical, the biblical borders.”

5. Bennett and Lapid say they won’t include Arab political parties in a coalition government if they win the election.

• Bennett and Lapid previously teamed up to oust Netanyahu in 2021, forming a short-lived governing coalition with support from an Arab party, prompting racist attacks from other right-wingers.
• This time around, Bennett and Lapid said they will only work with “Zionist parties,” not Arab parties that represent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up more than 20% of Israel’s population, declaring: “We are establishing a Zionist government with a massive Zionist majority.”