Wave of Yesh Atid MKs quit election run as joint slate with Bennett falters in polls

Five sitting lawmakers from the centrist Yesh Atid party declared over the past week that they would not run for the Knesset in the upcoming election as part of the joint slate B’Yachad, led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, as declining poll figures leave many without realistic reelection chances.

The announcements came ahead of B’Yachad’s unveiling of its candidate list, set for Sunday, two days before the deadline for parties to submit their final electoral slates. It will mark a significant moment as it determines which members of Yesh Atid — currently the Knesset’s largest opposition faction — receive realistic spots on a list that has fallen substantially in opinion surveys in recent months.

According to Channel 12, the agreement forming B’Yachad allocated Bennett’s party roughly four of every seven places on the joint slate, with Yesh Atid receiving three, amounting to six Yesh Atid candidates in the first 14 spots. Bennett heads the alliance, with Yair Lapid in the No. 2 spot.

Having slumped to not far above the 3.25% electoral threshold in some polls, Yesh Atid, which won 24 seats in the 2022 election, merged earlier this year with Bennett’s new Bennett 2026 party to create B’Yachad, which itself has since lost significant ground and is now expected to win 13-15 seats amid Gadi Eisenkot’s rise with his Yashar party, expected to win 22-26 seats.

As the joint slate loses ground, senior officials in B’Yachad cited by Haaretz said Bennett should abandon his campaign to lead the next government and instead merge with Yashar under Eisenkot’s leadership, adopting a strategy aimed at expanding the bloc seeking to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The five lawmakers who said they won’t run in the past week range from relative newcomers to those who were founding members of Yesh Atid and have served in the Knesset since 2013. They all said they would remain members of the party.

Founding member MK Meir Cohen said Monday that he wouldn’t run for reelection and would be appointed chairman and president of the Yesh Atid convention — the party’s central internal representative body.

In a joint statement with Lapid released by the party, Cohen said that “after 25 years in the education system as a teacher and school principal, and 23 years in politics, two terms as mayor and twice as welfare minister, I am happily and proudly making room for the party’s next generation and the people who will lead it into the future.”

“This is not a farewell,” Lapid said. “Meir is my older brother. He has always been, and will always be, the person closest to me in Yesh Atid, and he will continue to be one of the party’s pillars and central figures. I asked him to run in a top spot this time as well, but Meir wanted to give an opportunity to the party’s next generation of Knesset members. This only proves, once again, what a rare person and a rare politician he is.”

Hours later, fellow founding member MK Mickey Levy and Lapid himself announced that Levy would similarly not run on the B’Yachad list of candidates and would instead become the head of Yesh Atid’s internal court.

However, according to Yesh Atid’s internal regulations, the court head must be a former judge or a lawyer with at least 15 years of experience — criteria Levy doesn’t meet.

“Mickey is staying in Yesh Atid, has accepted my request to be the head of the party court, and will work in the elections until victory, but he has decided to vacate his spot because the slate should be led by the party’s next generation,” Lapid said in a tweet that also mentioned Cohen’s stepping aside.

In a letter to Yesh Atid members cited in Hebrew media, Levy hailed his long history with Yesh Atid since its 2011 founding, his relationship with Lapid, and the latter’s leadership.

“I am ending this chapter with my head held high, wholeheartedly and with great satisfaction for the honor to serve, work and have influence,” he said. “I have no anger or bitterness. I mainly have great gratitude and pride for the path we have gone together.”

On Tuesday, Yesh Atid MK Debbie Biton said she too had told Lapid she would not compete on the faction’s list for the next election.

“I am finishing four intense and meaningful years in the Knesset with a great sense of satisfaction in the public service, legislation and struggles in which I was a partner,” she wrote on X, adding she was not leaving the party.

MK Tatiana Mazarsky, who has served since the previous Knesset, also wrote on X on Tuesday that she would not compete in the election, adding that she would remain a member of the party.

“This is my political home. I believe in the values of Yesh Atid, I believe in the leadership of Yair Lapid, and I believe that Yesh Atid should lead the State of Israel,” she said.

On Thursday, Karine Elharrar also announced that she will not run in the October 27 election. “I have decided, following consultations with my family, to move on to a new challenge. I will therefore not run on the Yesh Atid slate for the next Knesset,” said Elharrar.

A founding member of Yesh Atid who has served in the Knesset since 2013, including as energy minister in the Bennett-Lapid government in 2021, the lawmaker stressed that she is not leaving the party. “I am staying in Yesh Atid because Yesh Atid is my party and my political home,” Elharrar said, adding that she will campaign for the party ahead of the election.

In addition to those departures, Elazar Stern, a longtime lawmaker who left Yesh Atid, joined up with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party last month, while Yoav Segalovitz, also a former member of the centrist party, made the unprecedented announcement Monday evening that he will run with Ra’am, an Arab party, in the October 27 election.

Speaking on the wave of resignations, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari told Radio 104.5FM on Tuesday: “You are seeing a process of genuine farewells of MKs, who are leaving politics but not Yesh Atid.”

“You are seeing beautiful and orderly management by party head Lapid and by MKs and former ministers. There is an understanding that some of them have been there for over 13 years and should give an opportunity to other MKs,” Ben-Ari said.

“It is not an easy week for Yesh Atid, but I understand what an amazing party I have, in contrast to what you see in the Likud,” she added. Netanyahu’s party held a turbulent primary vote last month, after he was given permission to insert many of his own personal, unelected candidates in realistic slots on the slate. He has yet to announce who he will place in some of those prized spots.