标签： Asia

Two former Israeli prime ministers, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, have announced a historic merger of their political factions to mount a unified challenge against incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in national elections set to take place no later than October 2025.

The new political bloc, named “Beyahad” — which translates to “Together” in Hebrew — will be helmed by Bennett, with the explicit goal of ousting the 76-year-old leader who has controlled Israeli politics for the vast majority of the past 17 years.

Speaking at a joint press conference held Sunday, Lapid framed the alliance as a necessary step for national unity, while defending his decision to stand behind Bennett, a member of Israel’s political right. Lapid described Bennett as a “liberal, decent, law-abiding right-winger, who did not sell his values – neither to Haredi extortion nor to corruption.” He went on to call on all centrist voters across Israel to rally behind the new bloc, emphasizing that “Israel needs unity like air to breathe.”

For his part, Bennett echoed the theme of cross-ideological cooperation, noting that the merged party’s unity itself sends a powerful message to voters. Despite past ideological differences between the two leaders’ former parties, Bennett stressed that they are now fully aligned to fight for national change. In a public post shared to the social platform X, Bennett called the merger the most Zionist and patriotic action he and Lapid have ever taken on behalf of the State of Israel.

“The era of division is over. The era of repair has arrived. When we work together, we win,” Bennett stated. He added that the pair previously delivered more progress during their one-year coalition government than competing administrations achieved over full four-year terms.

This is not the first time Bennett and Lapid have joined forces to oppose Netanyahu: the pair led separate parties in 2021 when they successfully united a diverse coalition to oust Netanyahu from office, governing under a rotational power-sharing agreement that ultimately collapsed just over a year after taking office.

In his remarks, Bennett also outlined core principles of the new bloc, noting that the alliance will work to advance a close-knit, inclusive form of Judaism that rejects religious coercion. At the same time, he confirmed that the bloc will only partner with self-identified Zionist parties, ruling out any cooperation with Arab-led Israeli political factions.

The announcement of the merger has already drawn positive responses from multiple opposition figures, coming as Netanyahu faces cascading criticism on multiple fronts, from his handling of the ongoing conflict with Iran to longstanding political controversies. Netanyahu continues to fight ongoing corruption charges, which he has repeatedly denied, and his push for a controversial package of judicial overhaul reforms has eroded support even among former political allies and sparked mass sustained protests across the country since 2023.

For many Israeli voters, the most significant failure of Netanyahu’s tenure has been his government’s inability to prevent the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,100 people in Israel. The leader also faces an active arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, charging him with alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Gadi Eisenkot, former chief of the Israeli military and leader of the opposition Yashar party, publicly welcomed the new alliance, saying he views Bennett and Lapid as qualified partners. Eisenkot added that he remains committed to acting responsibly to deliver the change and victory that Israel needs, framing reform of the country’s political system as his lifelong mission.

Recent polling data underscores the scale of Netanyahu’s declining popularity. A August 2025 survey conducted by the Institute for National Security Studies found that 76 percent of Israeli voters have lost trust in Netanyahu’s government, which has held power since late 2022. That downward trend has continued into September, with early polling showing shrinking support for Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, even after a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Iran was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month.

A diplomatic rift is brewing in the Middle East after multiple anonymous regional, U.S. and Yemeni sources confirmed to Middle East Eye that the United Arab Emirates has waged an aggressive, four-month lobbying campaign to push the former Trump administration to designate Yemen’s Islah Party as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) – a move that would directly undercut Saudi Arabia, the group’s main international backer.

The push from Abu Dhabi came after the Trump administration designated three national branches of the Muslim Brotherhood – Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese – as terrorist organizations earlier this year. While the UAE issued a muted public statement praising the decision as a positive step for global counter-terrorism efforts, senior Emirati officials privately expressed deep frustration that the action failed to meet their longstanding demand: a blanket terror designation for the entire Muslim Brotherhood movement, a goal Abu Dhabi has pursued for more than a decade across Washington and European capitals.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic deliberations, noted that Emirati leaders genuinely believed the Trump administration would move forward with the proscription at some point. While it remains unclear whether Abu Dhabi secured a formal timeline from U.S. counterparts, a terror designation would carry severe consequences: a SDGT label would force U.S. financial institutions to freeze all assets linked to the party and bar all its members from entering the United States. If the more severe Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation was adopted, any individual anywhere in the world suspected of providing material support or resources to Islah could face prosecution under U.S. anti-terrorism law.

The lobbying push sets the stage for a major escalation between Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who have seen their once-aligned alliance fracture sharply over divergent strategic interests across the Middle East in recent years. Founded more than 30 years ago as the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, Islah is an independent Yemeni political party that blends Islamist, tribal and conservative ideological currents. While often characterized as ideologically sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, the party has repeatedly denied any formal affiliation with the movement. Two members of the Saudi-backed Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council – Marib Governor Sultan Ali al-Arada and Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazeer – currently hold seats as Islah representatives.

A senior informed Saudi source confirmed the kingdom is well aware that the UAE’s broader campaign to ban all Muslim Brotherhood branches targets Islah specifically. “They see Islah as the most dangerous branch of the Brotherhood because of its political weight and its role in Yemen,” the source told Middle East Eye. The U.S. official added that while the administration had not formally assessed Riyadh’s reaction, pushing through the designation would almost certainly trigger fierce pushback from the kingdom.

Longtime coalition partners in the 2015 Yemen intervention, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have grown increasingly at odds over their strategic priorities in the country. Tensions boiled over in late 2022 when Riyadh forced the dissolution of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group that Abu Dhabi has supported to politically and militarily marginalize Islah. Since that showdown, Saudi Arabia has moved to push Emirati forces and their local proxies out of key Yemeni territory. The rift extends beyond Yemen: the two Gulf powers also back opposing sides in Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict, with Riyadh supporting the Sudanese Armed Forces alongside Egypt and Turkey, while Abu Dhabi backs the Rapid Support Forces.

Following a November executive order from the Trump administration that launched the process of designating specific Muslim Brotherhood chapters, the State Department began reaching out to regional stakeholders to gather input on a potential Islah blacklisting. Administration officials sent a series of questions about the party to both Saudi officials and Islah representatives as part of internal deliberations. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the outreach, telling Middle East Eye that the agency does not disclose details of internal designation discussions.

Islah has not issued an official public response to the UAE’s lobbying offensive, but a senior party member told Middle East Eye the move did not come as a surprise. “We expected certain people to come after us after the Trump administration first unveiled the directive in November,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity amid a recent rise in targeted assassinations of Yemeni political figures. The party is currently pushing back against the terror allegations and is communicating with the State Department through a third-party intermediary. “Islah is a Yemeni party, and it isn’t a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It doesn’t have any links to them,” the source said. “We are happy with what the Muslim Brotherhood is doing in supporting Palestine, but that doesn’t mean Islah is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Abdullah al-Arian, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar, explained the divergent approaches of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the Muslim Brotherhood. While both nations have formally designated the movement as a terrorist organization, al-Arian noted that the UAE maintains an uncompromising zero-tolerance policy for any group linked to the Brotherhood, “irrespective of what short-term political advantages it might offer.” “There is a far deeper, ideologically driven agenda on the part of the UAE that we don’t see necessarily manifesting from the Saudis,” al-Arian said. “Not because the Saudis are more amenable to these groups or their actual political projects or programmes, but more because they see in them the possibilities for tactical political advantages.”

Middle East Eye reached out to the UAE embassy in Washington and the Saudi foreign ministry for comment on the lobbying campaign, but did not receive a response prior to publication.