Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope signed an agreement on Thursday to run together on a joint slate in the next Knesset election.
The two parties will remain separate for the remainder of the current Knesset but will merge ahead of the next vote, which must be held by Oct. 27, 2026, but could come considerably sooner if the coalition falls and early elections are called.
Sa’ar’s party is set to be given two spots on the combined candidates list with Likud. One spot will likely go to the foreign minister, and the second to Ze’ev Elkin, who serves as an additional minister in the Finance Ministry on behalf of New Hope.
Once a Likud lawmaker, Sa’ar founded New Hope in 2020, ahead of the fourth of five election rounds between 2019 and 2022. He then served as justice minister in the government led by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.
Sa’ar returned to government as part of the National Unity Party alliance led by Benny Gantz in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, but then left Netanyahu’s coalition in March, returning to the opposition.
Sa’ar and his fellow New Hope lawmakers re-entered the Netanyahu-led government without Gantz in September, and he was appointed as Jerusalem’s top diplomat by the prime minister in November.
According to recent opinion polls, Sa’ar’s New Hope Party would not garner the 3.25% of votes cast needed to make it into the Knesset by itself if a vote were to be held now.
