Netanyahu’s rivals form alliance in Israeli elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest challengers in Israel’s April general election joined forces on Thursday, a dramatic turn in a race his right-wing Likud party has been predicted to win easily.

Former military chief Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience party and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid announced early Thursday that they would run jointly, saying they were “motivated by national responsibility.” The unity move paved the way for a third ex-military chief, Gabi Ashkenazi, to join the list.

Former military chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon and his Telem party had joined earlier.

The Resilience party, in a statement, said Gantz, Lapid and Moshe Yaalon, a former defence minister, “decided to establish a joint list that will comprise the new Israeli ruling party”.

Gantz and Lapid, who met overnight, agreed on a “rotation for the prime minister’s post” in which Gantz would hold office for the first two and a half years of a new government’s term before Lapid took over.

Israelis vote for party lists of candidates for seats in the 120-member parliament.

Since Israel’s creation in 1948, no one party has clinched an outright majority in the legislature and so post-election coalition-building has determined the composition of governments and who leads them.

Netanyahu, 69, has been in power for the past decade, with Likud at the helm of a parliamentary bloc.

Opinion polls have forecast a Likud victory, with some 30 parliamentary seats, in the April 9 ballot, with Resilience and Yesh Atid each trailing by a wide margin and Netanyahu on track to form a rightist coalition similar to the one he heads.

But the surveys also predicted a much tighter race and a possible upset should Gantz, 59, and Lapid, 55, team up and then form a centrist and left-wing parliamentary bloc larger than a Likud-led alliance.

In its statement, Resilience announced that another popular former armed forces chief, Gaby Ashkenazy - like Gantz a political newcomer - had agreed to join the new centrist alliance.