Nearly all polls show the anti-Netanyahu coalition of opposition parties winning a majority in the Knesset when Israelis go to the polls in October. But already cracks are showing in what would be Israel’s next government.
This week, the cracks surfaced inside The Democrats, the new Labor-Meretz alliance led by Yair Golan. According to Ynet, a closed party meeting on campaign messaging leaked to the press after candidates were warned not to post independent political messages without approval from headquarters.
The dispute centered on the party’s response to the deadly attack near Havat Gilad. Former Meretz lawmaker Gaby Lasky, now placed sixth on The Democrats’ list, reportedly criticized Golan for using the term “Judea and Samaria” in party messaging and demanded that he instead refer to the area as the “West Bank.”
Golan pushed back, saying he rejected the claim that “Judea and Samaria” is a right-wing term.
That exchange quickly went viral because it exposed a deeper problem for the opposition. Golan is trying to lead a party that wants to be large enough to help form the next government, but parts of his own list recoil at language many Israelis regard as basic biblical, historical, and national terminology.
It also gave the right an easy campaign weapon. Coalition figures like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have argued for months that a future anti-Netanyahu government would be held hostage by its most radical left-wing elements, especially on Judea and Samaria.
Golan himself has repeatedly courted controversy. Midway through the Gaza war, he declared that a “sane country” does not “kill babies as a hobby,” a grotesque line that was condemned across Israel’s political spectrum. He later insisted he was not accusing IDF soldiers directly, but the damage was done. Foreign media outlets, including recent British coverage of Israel’s election campaign, have used the remark to amplify a global anti-Israel narrative they, like Golan, blame on Benjamin Netanyahu.
הכותרת בטלגרף הבריטי מצטטת היום את דבריו של יאיר גולן, שותפו של איזנקוט: ״ישראל הורגת ילדים כתחביב״.
איזה שקר מוחלט. איזה נזק נורא למאבקנו הצודק וללוחמינו הגיבורים.
אני מגנה בתוקף את השקר הנתעב הזה! pic.twitter.com/SfxfmPbhvw
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 29, 2026
The problem for the opposition is that Golan will be needed to form a government. Yet his ideological baggage makes other would-be coalition partners nervous.
Current opposition leader Yair Lapid previously referred to Golan and The Democrats as “a radical left-wing party” that must be marginalized. Lapid more recently merged his faction with that of former co-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in hopes of doing just that.
Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beiteinu, has signaled that while The Democrats may be part of a future anti-Netanyahu coalition, Golan and his party should not be handed sensitive portfolios such as defense or justice. Far from a minor reservation, that is an admission that removing Netanyahu is easier than governing together afterward.
Israel has seen this movie before. The last Bennett-Lapid coalition that governed from June 2021 to November 2022 was united by one objective: ousting Netanyahu. Once that was achieved, there was little else holding it together.
The same danger is emerging again. Beyond their disdain for Netanyahu, the opposition parties all claim common ground as “Zionists.” But their definitions of Zionism are drifting further apart.
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