Opposition Leader Yair Lapid told his political ally Naftali Bennett on Tuesday that he was willing to take third place, rather than second, on their joint electoral slate if it would help secure a broader merger with Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot, a source close to Lapid said.

On Sunday evening, Lapid and Bennett announced that they were uniting their two parties into a combined ticket called “Together – Led by Bennett.”

The source added that “Lapid says his personal ranking is far less important than the need to unite forces and win the election.”

Declaring that he and Lapid were “racing forward to victory,” Bennett invited Eisenkot to join them, stating that “our door is open to you too.”

A source close to Eisenkot dismissed Lapid’s offer to join the new union despite the fact that Eisenkot was first reported to have proposed a merger in January.

“That’s not the point at all. We’re only interested in what will bring victory to the bloc,” the source told The Times of Israel.

Eisenkot welcomed Bennett and Lapid’s new union, calling them “allies,” but suggested the union might find it hard to draw votes away from the pro-Netanyahu right.

“For this victory to happen, we need to bring in more votes — that is our only test. Every union must be judged by that,” Eisenkot said on Sunday.

He subsequently invited most of the opposition leaders to convene to coordinate a path to a victory by a “Zionist majority” over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in elections set for October.

A Channel 12 poll released on Monday found that if Eisenkot were to join Bennett and Lapid on a single slate, the alliance would win 41 seats. But the broader bloc balance would remain largely unaffected, with 50 seats for Netanyahu’s coalition, 60 for Zionist opposition parties, and 10 for Arab parties.

In response, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz said that the merger “harms the ability to replace this terrible government,” insisting that “the best solution is a broad, Zionist government.”

“Instead of calling out to right-wing voters, Likudniks, and religious Zionists who are looking for a new........

© The Times of Israel