Bennett and Lapid unveil final joint B'Yachad slate in Tel Aviv

Update, 6 September, 21:08 Israel time

Bennett and Lapid have now presented the combined slate at a launch event in Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel reported that this was the first presentation of the final, joint roster, after each faction had put out its own names, and that it comes ahead of Tuesday's deadline for parties to file their lists for the October 27 election. According to the same report, Yesh Atid takes four of the top 10 places and around half of the first 15.

The report quoted Bennett describing the slate as Israel's team of doers and as the most experienced and tenacious to run for the Knesset in a generation, and promising repairs from day one.

Ynet reported that at the launch Bennett pledged to establish a state commission of inquiry immediately after the government is sworn in, to cut the cost of living by 30% and to draft Haredi men, saying that a government of October 7 caused damage and a government of October 27 would repair it. Lapid, according to the same report, said he had watched Bennett up close and considered him the most suitable candidate for prime minister.

N12's Dafna Liel reported that Bennett also said he would declare Qatar an enemy state and break up monopolies to bring prices down. Haaretz reported the slate as having three women in the top five.

Update, 6 September, 18:08 Israel time

English-language outlets rendering the party's name as B'Yachad have added detail on how the slate fits together. The Times of Israel reported that B'Yachad incorporates Lapid's Yesh Atid, which published its own candidates the previous day, and described the party as one Bennett founded together with Lapid, who it identified as Opposition Leader, in a bid to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office. It listed the same leading candidates in the same order as the versions already circulating, naming those Bennett has brought in as former senior officials and reservists, and describing Terner as an economist by training.

The Times of Israel also referred to the party in one photo credit as the Together party, matching the Hebrew meaning noted in our earlier report.

The Jerusalem Post reported that what B'Yachad has put out is a list of candidates released ahead of a full Knesset slate reveal still to come, which is consistent with Ynet's framing that Bennett's names are to be merged with Yesh Atid's, and at odds with descriptions of the published order as the final joint list. Neither report resolves the differences between the published sequences below the leading names, and neither gives a total size for the combined slate.

The story as first reported

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett has published the Knesset candidate list of his new party, "Yachad", Hebrew for "together", with former prime minister and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid in the second slot. Ynet reported that the slate Bennett released is to be combined with candidates from Yesh Atid, the centrist party Lapid founded and leads.

According to the published order, the third place goes to Keren Terner, who has served as director general of both the Transportation Ministry and the Finance Ministry. She is followed in the top ranks by Liran Avisar Ben Horin, a former director general of the Communications Ministry, and Michal Hirsch Negri, previously director general of the Ra'anana municipality. Ynet described the outcome as three former directors general placed directly behind Bennett, and five women among the first ten names.

What the list looks like

The version circulated by political commentator Amit Segal runs: Bennett, Lapid, Keren Terner, Merav Ben Ari, Liran Avisar Ben Horin, Noam Tibon, Michal Hirsch Negri, Eitan Ginzburg, Merav Cohen, Yonatan Shalev, Brura Naim Arman, Ram Ben Barak, Amir Strogo, Naor Shiri, Nissan Zeevi, Vladimir Beliak, Orly Harel, Yorai Lahav Hertzano, Shachar Veron and Yasmin Sacks-Friedman.

A list published by the Hebrew outlet News.co.il, credited to Ili Zilberberg, carries the same names in the top ten but diverges lower down: it places Ram Ben Barak at eleven, Brura Naim Arman at twelve, Naor Shiri at thirteen, Amir Strogo at fourteen, Nissan Zeevi at fifteen and Vladimir Beliak at sixteen, and stops there. That outlet also marked each candidate as belonging either to Bennett or to Lapid. The two published orders therefore agree on the leadership and the upper half of the slate but not on the sequence beneath it, and the reports do not explain the difference.

A parity deal for the second ten

Earlier on the same day, Ynet reported that the two leaders had settled on an equal split for slots eleven through twenty, an arrangement Israeli politics calls a zipper, in which candidates from each side alternate down the list. The same report said the identity of the third-place candidate was still being decided at that point, between Terner and Avisar Ben Horin, and that the result would mean three women in the first five places. The published slate matches that description.

Ynet also reported that Bennett was in contact with Chili Tropper, and that Tropper was simultaneously in talks with Gadi Eisenkot. Neither name appears on the list as published.

Why the ordering matters

Israel elects its parliament, the Knesset, by nationwide proportional representation from closed party lists. Voters choose a list rather than an individual, and seats are filled strictly from the top down according to the share of the vote a list receives. A candidate's number is therefore the single most consequential fact about their chances: the difference between a safe slot and a marginal one decides whether a person enters parliament at all. That is why the composition of the first ten names, and the balance between the two camps merging into one slate, is treated in Israel as a political event in its own right.

A joint slate also means the parties run as a single ballot, pooling their votes rather than competing for them. Yesh Atid has sat in the Knesset for years under Lapid, who served as prime minister; Bennett, who led the country before him, has been building a new political vehicle since leaving office.

A point of disagreement between outlets

The reports differ on what exactly was published. Ynet framed the release as the list of Bennett's party, to be integrated with Yesh Atid's candidates. Segal presented it as the joint Yachad list of Bennett and Lapid. N12's Dafna Liel described it as the final list of Bennett's Yachad party, without the sitting Yesh Atid members of Knesset. Several names on the published order are associated in the News.co.il breakdown with Lapid, which sits awkwardly with that description. Our account does not resolve the discrepancy.

What the reports do not say

The material does not give a date for the election, does not state how many places the full combined slate will contain, and does not say whether the order published is final or subject to further changes once Yesh Atid's serving legislators are slotted in. It does not explain the mechanism by which the third place was decided, nor the terms of the agreement between Bennett and Lapid beyond the parity arrangement for the second ten. No official statement from either leader is quoted in the reports. Whether Chili Tropper will join Bennett, Eisenkot, or neither, is left open. There is also no polling in the material indicating how the joint list is expected to perform.