Image copyright AFP Image caption Former IDF chief Benny Gantz (L) and TV-host-turned politician Yair Lapid formed an alliance on Wednesday

Two of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest challengers in April elections have announced a centrist alliance in a bid to defeat him.

Ex-army chief Benny Gantz and centrist politician Yair Lapid agreed to rotate as prime minister if they win.

Separately, Mr Netanyahu forged an alliance with several far-right parties to try to shore up votes.

His right-wing Likud party leads the polls despite an investigation into corruption allegations against him.

The Israeli attorney general is due to make a decision on whether Mr Netanyahu, who denies the allegations, should be charged in the coming weeks.

Who are the challengers?

Mr Gantz, the former head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and TV-journalist-turned politician Yair Lapid announced their intention to run on a joint centrist ticket on Wednesday, before the Thursday deadline to submit candidate lists for the 9 April elections.

They were also joined by former Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and ex-military chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

The centre ground agreement is seen as making the race more competitive and a challenge to Mr Netanyahu's decade-long premiership, the BBC's Jerusalem correspondent Tom Bateman says.

Mr Gantz's Resilience party said in a statement that it had "decided to establish a joint list that will comprise the new Israeli ruling party", and vowed to reunite Israeli society.

If successful at the polls, Mr Gantz agreed to hold office as prime minister for the first two-and-a-half years, before Mr Lapid takes over.

Where does Netanyahu stand?

Opinion polls predict Mr Netanyahu's Likud party will win the most parliamentary seats and be in a position to form another governing coalition of nationalist and religious parties.

All governments in Israel are coalitions because of the country's system of proportional representation, meaning a single party is unlikely to be able to govern alone.

On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu helped negotiate a merger of the far-right Jewish Home and ultra-right Jewish Power parties, in a bid to boost the total number of seats held by right-wing parties after the polls.

As part of an alliance with his Likud party, he agreed to set aside two cabinet posts for the Jewish Home party, as long as it agreed to the merger.

However, his critics decried the move to join forces with Jewish Power, which includes disciples of the late anti-Arab extremist rabbi Meir Kahane.

The US-born rabbi led a right-wing fundamentalist group in the 1980s that advocated attacks on Arabs, and was later outlawed under Israeli anti-terrorist legislation.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What are the allegations facing PM Netanyahu?

Mr Netanyahu's campaign has been overshadowed by the possibility of the attorney general accepting police recommendations to indict him on suspicion of committing fraud and bribery in three cases.

The prime minister has vowed to remain in office whatever the outcome of the attorney general's decision.

If he wins, he will be on course to become Israel's longest serving leader, taking over that title from David Ben-Gurion.</s>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces challenges from the country's centrist Members of Knesset after they announced a new coalition on Thursday.

Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid and retired military chief Benny Gantz have tabled a list of MKs ready to stand for elections on 9 April that "will constitute the new Israeli ruling party", the pair said in a joint statement which also stated that they were "motivated by national responsibility."

"The new ruling party will bring forth a cadre of security and social leaders to ensure Israel's security and to reconnect its people and heal the divide within Israeli society," they said.

The coalition promises a rotating leadership if elected, where Mr. Gantz would become prime minister first and Mr. Lapid would replace him later, with former military chiefs, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Yaalon following after.

Mr. Ashkenazi said that he was joining the new party due to the "pivotal moment and the national task at hand." But the joint list of candidates must win a parliamentary majority with other parties if it wishes to form the next government.

READ MORE: Netanyahu Popular Among Some Voters, But People to Vote for Right-Wing – Scholar

Mr. Netanyhu has been embattled by corruption allegations and could potentially face indictment. The prime minister has ratcheted up a right-wing support base to defer the charges. He reached a deal on Wednesday with two marginal religious-nationalist parties to bolster his power in the Knesset.</s>After marathon, all-night talks, the leaders of the two top-polling centrist parties, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, announced Thursday that they had agreed to forge a centrist alliance to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections.

The announcement, just after dawn, said that Gantz’s Israel Resilience party and Lapid’s Yesh Atid had agreed that should they win and form a government, Gantz would be prime minister first for a period of two years, before Lapid would take over.

The announcement also said that popular former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi had agreed to join the united list in the wake of the merger, further adding to their broad centrist appeal.

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“From a feeling of national responsibility, it was decided by Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and (Moshe) Ya’alon to create a united list that will become the new governing party of Israel,” they said in a joint statement.

Ya’alon, another former IDF cheif of staff and former defense minister, had already united his Telem party with Gantz.

“This new governing party will present a new team of security and social leaders that will ensure the security of the nation and reunite the fractured elements of Israeli society,” the statement said.

The statement announced the rotation agreement and said Ashkenazi had decided to join due to the “pivotal moment and the national task at hand.”

The leaders were to make a joint announcement later in the day. No further details were released, including the name of the new union.

Talks had long stalled over who will lead the joint list, and how much of Lapid’s Yesh Atid’s platform the unified faction will adopt.

Gantz, whose Israel Resilience party is polling well ahead of Lapid’s Yesh Atid if the two were to run separately, reportedly had wanted to stay at the top for the entire term.

Earlier, sources familiar with the talks who spoke with several Israeli media outlets on Wednesday said that if the two agree to a rotation, the party of the second-term leader — likely Lapid — would get a larger share of the joint list’s Knesset slots.

The two leaders met for two and a half hours earlier Wednesday, at the home of Yesh Atid campaign manager Hillel Kobrinsky in Savyon, after which their advisers took over the negotiations. The leaders then met again at night.

The decision to merge the lists had to be made before 5 p.m. Thursday, the final legally-mandated deadline for registering each Knesset list that will run in the April 9 race.

Gantz presented his party’s Knesset slate on Tuesday night, and used the opportunity to announce his intention to call Lapid and propose an immediate meeting in order to join forces with Yesh Atid.

“As soon as the conference is over, I will call my friend Lapid, and I will propose to meet with him this evening. I will again propose to him to set all other considerations aside, and together we will put Israel before everything else,” Gantz said in his speech, which was marked by a scathing personal attack on Netanyahu.

Gantz and Lapid indeed ended up talking after the speech, and sources with knowledge of the negotiations were quoted by the Ynet news site as saying the conversation “went well.”

Polls have shown that a merger of both parties would become the biggest Knesset faction and have a better chance to challenge Netanyahu’s Likud.

But Yesh Atid had said it is waiting for clarifications on Israel Resilience’s views on a range of issues, including the nation-state law passed in the previous Knesset, religious freedom, and whether Gantz would join a Netanyahu-led government if a victorious Netanyahu were to offer him a senior post.

“You can’t weaken the opportunity for historic change due to a debate over job opportunities,” Gantz urged on Tuesday. “Let’s rise above [the differences], unite and win.”

Lapid responded to Gantz in a statement that read, “As I said [Monday] on stage [when presenting his own party’s Knesset candidates], we will leave no stone unturned, we will do everything to ensure we don’t miss a historic opportunity to replace this government.”

Meanwhile, Israel Resilience’s separate talks with MK Orly Levy-Abekasis’s Gesher party, which were almost finalized in recent days, fell through Wednesday night, as the Gesher party announced Gantz’s talks with Lapid had effectively nullified the agreement between the two parties.

On Tuesday, Israel Resilience released its official slate for the Knesset, revealing the names of the top 30 candidates it hopes will lead the party to victory in April.

Six of the first 23 candidates on the list are from Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem party, which agreed on a joint Knesset ticket with Israel Resilience last month. Only five of the top 20 are women.</s>TEL AVIV, Israel — Until a few weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed bound for inevitable re-election. Now in his 10th year in office, he appeared poised to replace Israel’s founding leader, David…

TEL AVIV, Israel — Until a few weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed bound for inevitable re-election. Now in his 10th year in office, he appeared poised to replace Israel’s founding leader, David Ben Gurion, as the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history.

Yet as April’s parliamentary elections approach, the man whom supporters call “King Bibi” now faces for the first time in a decade a serious threat to his continued reign. Much of his vulnerability is due to the multiple corruption investigations against him, which have shaken public opinion.

[MORE: Israel Seen as One of the Top 25 Countries in the World]

Yet another is the rise of Benjamin Gantz, more commonly called Benny. A three-star general whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, Gantz is using a centrist message that is resonating with the public. Polls show as many Israelis support him to be the next prime minister as Netanyahu. A February poll shows 47 percent of Israelis want Netanyahu replaced, compared with 35 percent who want him re-elected.

To be clear, Gantz remains an underdog to unseat Netanyahu when Israelis head to the polls on April 9. A governing coalition requires at least 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. In Israel’s parliamentary system, voters cast their ballots for a party, and Netanyahu’s Likud is currently polling well beyond its opponents.

But public enthusiasm for Gantz is chipping away at the prime minister’s perceived political strength: being seen as a tough leader who prioritizes security. Additionally, Gantz’s focus on political unity and leading a respectful campaign comes at a time when voters say they are weary of polarized politics.

“There’s something about Gantz’s personal conduct and personality that is both very authentic and compatible with the craving in the Israeli public for a type of leader that will bring Israelis together, seek a common civic denominator and reverse the current trend of divisiveness, tribalism and search for enemies from within,” says Yohanan Plesner, president of The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), a nonpartisan think tank.

According to the 2018 Israeli Democracy Index, the greatest source of tension in Israeli society is between the left and right — worse than tensions between Arabs and Jews. That sentiment has tripled since 2009, when Netanyahu became prime minister. The survey also found that nearly half of Israelis believe their democracy is in grave danger, and that their government is corrupt.

Last December, Gantz established a new political party, Hosen L’Yisrael (Israel Resilience). At first he maintained a subdued public persona, save for a few campaign ads that simultaneously flaunted his warrior credentials and his desire for peace with the Palestinians. “Do we want to send our children to war for another 25 years,” he asks in one ad.

On Jan. 29, Gantz officially entered the race to replace Netanyahu. At his campaign launch in Tel Aviv, the ex-military chief positioned himself as a centrist with no appetite for the bitter battles between right and left, and as a unifying force who would bridge that divide to move the country toward a brighter future.

Taking aim at the scandals and investigations surrounding Netanyahu, Israeli media quoted Gantz as saying, “The national government we will establish will show zero tolerance for corruption of any kind. The state’s money belongs to all its citizens and not to a small and privileged minority.”

[MORE: The 10 Most Corrupt Countries in the World, Ranked By Perception]

Netanyahu has responded by calling Gantz a leftist, a term that in Israel can be interpreted as weak on security and defense. Such attacks on Gantz are problematic. The 59-year-old served for 38 years in the Israel Defense Forces, the country’s most respected institution, rising to its highest rank. He commanded soldiers in two Lebanon wars, every Palestinian uprising and all three wars with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza. After serving as IDF chief of staff from 2011-2015, Gantz retired from public life.

Other developments during Netanyahu’s rule undercut his portrayal of himself as Israel’s protector-in-chief: Iran is on Israel’s doorstep in Syria; Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s government; Hamas still controls Gaza, and is gaining power in the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s attacks became less fitting when Gantz joined forces with Moshe Ya’alon, a hawkish former defense minister and once-prominent member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu has continued to label Gantz a “weak leftist” in campaign ads and social media. His attacks intensified after Gantz said in an interview that Israel should not rule over another people. Netanyahu’s strategy may work: According to a December IDI poll, 64 percent of Israelis want a right or center-right government.

MORE: [Netanyahu’s Hard Right Turn Away From His Generals]

Still, many feel Netanyahu’s time is up.

“It’s not the same Likud today,” says Dan Emirgui, a 51-year-old former Netanyahu supporter who has voted Likud in every election. Now he will be voting for Gantz, his friend and former commander. “I’ve never been extreme right. People are just blindly following Bibi like sheep,” says Emirgui, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Referring to Gantz, he adds, “Someone who speaks respectfully to people, even to people he disagrees with, that’s what I want in my prime minister.”

That Gantz served as IDF chief of staff under Netanyahu also complicates the prime minister’s attacks on his rival. It’s hard to portray Gantz as a leftist when Netanyahu glorified the man before he became his political opponent. At a farewell ceremony in February 2015, when Gantz left the military, Netanyahu praised his decades of service to Israel’s security.

Gantz isn’t the first IDF chief of staff to enter politics. In fact, he’s the 12th out of 21 total chiefs of staff in Israeli history, including the one currently serving. Two became prime minister: Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, both legendary generals who later in life dedicated their careers — and in Rabin’s case, his life — to pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

MORE: [Israel Seen as One of World’s Most Powerful Countries]

“The defense establishment produces more pragmatic leaders,” Plesner says. “They know how to use force, but are also more aware of the consequences of war.”

Gantz’s campaign slogan — Israel Before All — is not an echo of “America First,” but a rallying cry to Israelis who believe that Netanyahu has placed himself before the country. Indeed, Gantz’s entire campaign is essentially a referendum on the prime minister, who voters and analysts say has used division as a tool to quiet descent, vilify opponents and maintain power.

“Populist attacks against the media, the Supreme Court, the attorney general — that’s Netanyahu’s strategy,” says Gideon Rahat, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Gantz is about stopping this negativism, and that’s important enough to many Israelis.”

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Benny Gantz Poses a Serious Challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu?s Grip on Power originally appeared on usnews.com</s>The two main challengers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April polls announced an electoral alliance on February 21 in a bid to defeat him.

Benny Gantz, a respected former military chief of staff, and centrist politician Yair Lapid said in statements they would form a joint list for the April 9 elections and rotate as prime minister if they won.

Gantz heads his recently launched centrist Israel Resilience party, while Lapid leads Yesh Atid, which currently has 11 seats in parliament out of 120.

Opinion polls have shown the two as the main challengers to Netanyahu, who has been expected to win despite corruption investigations into his affairs.

Former defence minister Moshe Yaalon had previously joined Israel Resilience and another ex-military chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, will also join the new alliance, their statements said.

"Out of a sense of deep national responsibility, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Moshe Yaalon decided on the creation of a unified list which will serve as Israel's new party of government," the statement from Yesh Atid said.

"The party will put forward a new leadership team which will guarantee the security of Israel and will reunite the divided elements of Israeli society." Netanyahu has been prime minister for a total of around 13 years and currently leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel's history.</s>AFP | Benny Gantz (left) and Yair Lapid have agreed on a 'rotation for the prime minister's post'.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest challengers in Israel's April 9 general election joined forces on Thursday, marking a dramatic turn in a race his right-wing Likud party had been predicted to win easily.

Benny Gantz, a respected former military chief of staff, and centrist politician Yair Lapid said in statements they would form a joint list for the election and rotate as prime minister if they won.

Gantz heads his recently launched centrist Israel Resilience party, while Lapid leads Yesh Atid, which currently has 11 seats in the country’s 120-seat parliament.

Opinion polls have shown the two as the main challengers to Netanyahu, who is expected to win despite corruption investigations into his affairs.

In anticipation of the announcement, Netanyahu orchestrated a merger of far-right parties on Wednesday that could help him build a governing coalition after the ballot.

Since Israel's creation in 1948 no one party has clinched an outright majority in the legislature and so post-election coalition-building has determined the composition of governments and who leads them.

Netanyahu, 69, has been in power for the past decade, with Likud at the helm of a parliamentary bloc.

Opinion polls have forecast a Likud victory, with some 30 parliamentary seats, in the April 9 ballot, with Resilience and Yesh Atid each trailing by a wide margin and Netanyahu on track to form a rightist coalition similar to the one he heads.

But the surveys also predicted a much tighter race and a possible upset should Gantz, 59, and Lapid, 55, team up and then form a centrist and left-wing parliamentary bloc larger than a Likud-led alliance.

Moshe Yaalon, a former defence minister, had previously joined Israel Resilience and another ex-military chief of staff, Gaby Ashkenazi, will also join the new alliance, the centrist parties said on Thursday.

Netanyahu's political future has also been clouded by three corruption cases in which the attorney-general is expected to decide soon whether to accept police recommendations to indict him.

The prime minister is suspected of wrongfully accepting gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensing favours in alleged bids for favourable coverage in a newspaper and a website.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of a left-wing witch-hunt to topple him. His opponents are attacking his record and underlining the need for clean governance.

While Gantz and Lapid worked out their deal, Netanyahu helped negotiate the merger of two far-right parties, Jewish Home and Jewish Power, which could give followers of the late anti-Arab rabbi, Meir Kahane, a stronger voice in politics.

Leaders of Jewish Power have portrayed themselves as successors of the US-born Kahane, who served one term in the Knesset in the 1980s as head of the Kach party.

Kach advocated the "transfer" of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries and also called for a ban on intermarriage between Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Kahane's movement was subsequently banned from Israeli politics as racist. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York by an Egyptian-born American.</s>A combination of file photos show Benny Gantz, a former Israeli armed forces chief and head of the Israel Resilience Party, at the campaign launch in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 29 and Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid Party, at the Ariel University Centre in the Jewish settlement of Ariel, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on October 30, 2012 (Reuters photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest challengers in Israel's April general election joined forces on Thursday, a dramatic turn in a race his right-wing Likud Party has been predicted to win easily.

In anticipation of the announcement of a new centrist alliance between former military chief Benny Gantz’s Resilience Party and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid faction, Netanyahu orchestrated a merger of far-right parties on Wednesday that could help him build a governing coalition after the ballot.

The Resilience Party, in a statement, said Gantz, Lapid and Moshe Yaalon, a former defence minister, "decided to establish a joint list that will comprise the new Israeli ruling party".

Gantz and Lapid, who met overnight, agreed on a "rotation for the prime minister's post", in which Gantz would hold office for the first two-and-a-half years of a new government's term before Lapid took over.

Israelis vote for party lists of candidates for seats in the 120-member parliament.

Since Israel's creation in 1948 no one party has clinched an outright majority in the legislature and so post-election coalition-building has determined the composition of governments and who leads them.

Netanyahu, 69, has been in power for the past decade, with Likud at the helm of a parliamentary bloc.

Opinion polls have forecast a Likud victory, with some 30 parliamentary seats, in the April 9 ballot, with Resilience and Yesh Atid each trailing by a wide margin and Netanyahu on track to form a rightist coalition similar to the one he heads.

But the surveys also predicted a much tighter race and a possible upset should Gantz, 59, and Lapid, 55, team up and then form a centrist and left-wing parliamentary bloc larger than a Likud-led alliance.

In its statement, Resilience announced that another popular former armed forces chief, Gaby Ashkenazy — like Gantz a political newcomer — had agreed to join the new centrist alliance.

Netanyahu's political future has also been clouded by three corruption cases in which the attorney general is expected to decide soon whether to accept police recommendations to indict him.

The prime minister is suspected of wrongfully accepting gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensing favours in alleged bids for favourable coverage in a newspaper and a website.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of a left-wing witch-hunt to topple him. His opponents are attacking his record and underlining the need for clean governance.

While Gantz and Lapid worked out their deal, Netanyahu helped negotiate the merger of two far-right parties, Jewish Home and Jewish Power, that could give followers of the late anti-Arab rabbi, Meir Kahane, a stronger voice in politics.

Leaders of Jewish Power have portrayed themselves as successors of the US-born Kahane, who served one term in the Knesset in the 1980s as head of the Kach Party.

Kach advocated the "transfer" of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries and also called for a ban on intermarriage between Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Kahane's movement was subsequently banned from Israeli politics as racist. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York by an Egyptian-born American.</s>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an election alliance with a far-right party on Wednesday that could give followers of the late anti-Arab rabbi, Meir Kahane, a stronger voice in Israeli politics.

The deal, announced by Netanyahu’s Likud and the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, was aimed at solidifying a potential right-wing coalition after the April 9 parliamentary election.

Opinion polls predict Netanyahu’s Likud will win the most parliamentary seats and will be in a position to form a governing coalition of rightist and religious parties similar to the one he now heads.

But the surveys also show that a possible alliance between two of his strongest centrist opponents, former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, who leads the Resilience Party, and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid faction, could spark an upset.

Gantz and Lapid met on Wednesday, with speculation high they could strike a deal.

Moving to counter that prospective partnership, Netanyahu agreed to set aside two cabinet posts for Jewish Home on condition it agreed to a merger with the Jewish Power party, whose leaders have portrayed themselves as Kahane’s successors.

Jewish Home’s chairman said in a statement he accepted the deal after talks with Netanyahu and would ask the party’s central committee to ratify it later on Wednesday.

Jewish Power has already agreed to the merger, saying it would “prevent the establishment of a leftist government, God forbid”.

Such an alliance could be crucial to the two parties’ survival: opinion polls have shown that Jewish Home and Jewish Power might not garner enough votes on their own to win even a single seat in the Knesset.

Kahane, a U.S.-born rabbi, served one term in the Knesset in the 1980s as head of the Kach party, which advocated the “transfer” of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries and also called for a ban on intermarriage between Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Kahane’s movement was subsequently banned from Israeli politics as racist. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York by an Egyptian-born American.

Netanyahu’s political future has also been clouded by three corruption cases. The attorney-general is weighing whether to accept police recommendations to indict him over allegations he wrongfully accepted gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensed favours to try to win favourable coverage in an Israeli newspaper and a website.

In office since 2009, after an earlier term as prime minister from 1996 to 1999, Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing. He says he is a victim of a left-wing witchhunt to topple him.</s>The main challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s April elections had long sought to fight clean, but the gloves are now off after a series of attacks by the premier.

Responding to repeated barbs by Netanyahu — and to slipping poll numbers, commentators said — Benny Gantz chided the prime minister on Tuesday night for spending years studying and working in business in the US.

“When I lay in muddy foxholes with my soldiers on frozen winter nights, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, left Israel to improve your English and practice it at luxurious cocktail parties,” Gantz told a gathering of his centrist Israel Resilience party.

The decorated former armed forces chief said that in Netanyahu’s near 13 years as prime minister, he and those around him had become “addicted to the pleasures of power, corruption and hedonism.”

Netanyahu, under investigation on suspicion of multiple corruption offences, hit back immediately, highlighting his military experience and arguing that his English oratory has benefited Israel.

“Benny Gantz, be ashamed of yourself,” the prime minister said in a video clip posted by his Likud party shortly after the ex-general’s speech.

“You attack me…who commanded many operations beyond enemy lines, who was wounded in the operation to free Sabena hostages… who risked my life time and time again for our country.”

The clip showed black-and-white photos of a young Netanyahu training with the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit.

Netanyahu was shot in the bicep by fellow commando Marco Ashkenazi as they stormed a Sabena airliner taken over by Palestinian hijackers en route from Brussels to Tel Aviv in 1972.

Israeli election campaigns are always rough-and-tumble affairs, but the contest for the April 9 poll is shaping up to be particularly brutal.

“This is the battle for the crown, it’s dirty,” Israeli public radio’s veteran political analyst Hanan Kristal said Wednesday after the tit-for-tat episode.

“It’s to show the right ‘I am not afraid of Netanyahu’.”

In an escalating war of words since Gantz launched his campaign on January 29, Netanyahu’s Likud has repeatedly struck out at the contender, seeking to label him a “weak” leftist.

Earlier this week, it made unsubstantiated accusations that Gantz, while military chief, conspired with former US president Barack Obama’s administration on a plan for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israel Resilience party denounced the claim as “lies, lies, lies”, while some Israeli media and others called it absurd.

Polls show Netanyahu is likely to remain premier after the election.

But the attorney general is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he intends to charge the prime minister on the graft allegations.

After a restrained maiden speech last month Gantz polled strongly — surveys published by Israel’s three main television stations gave his party between 21 and 24 seats in the 120-member parliament.

But he has slipped since, with the latest polls for privately-owned Channel 12 TV and the Kan public broadcaster giving him 18 and 20 seats respectively.

“Benny Gantz took the stage at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds Tuesday night with a single goal in mind –- stopping his… party from sliding in the polls,” the Haaretz daily wrote.

The top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper said that Gantz was obliged to respond to Netanyahu’s attacks and to a comment by Yair Lapid, head of the rival centrist Yesh Atid party.

“In a situation in which Netanyahu has been making completely baseless attacks on him daily and Lapid has accused him of lacking a fighting spirit, Benny Gantz no longer had the luxury of sitting on the fence,” political commentator Nahum Barnea wrote.

Barnea contended that despite Netanyahu’s exemplary military service and political skills, Gantz’s attack on his governance was fair.

“Along the way, he became a corrupt hedonist. The criticism that Gantz and (former Israeli defence minister Moshe) Yaalon levelled against him on that issue last night in their speeches was completely justified.”</s>JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benny Gantz took Israel’s political world by storm just weeks ago when he announced the formation of his own Israel Resilience Party. The former general’s party was polling in the high teens, just as Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid did when his party stormed onto the scene ahead of the 2013 elections.

But neither center-left leader appeared to pose a serious threat to Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing coalition appeared unbeatable.

But in the early hours of Thursday morning Gantz and Lapid dropped a bombshell, and agreed that they would be stronger together than they would be individually. Putting aside rivalries and differences, they announced a new Israeli party along with with Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon, like Gantz a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

Yaalon’s Telem Party combined with Gantz’s late last month. And to sweeten the pot, another former head of the IDF, Gabi Ashkenazi, announced that he, too, would join the new joint list.

What is the merged party called?

The new party said it would call itself Blue and White, a nod to Israel’s national colors and to the Gantz campaign theme that “Israel comes before everything else.”

How will the merger work?

According to the announcement, should the party win, the position of prime minister would be rotated. Gantz would serve for the first 2 1/2 years, and then Lapid would take over. Other reports said that while Gantz was prime minister, Lapid would serve as foreign minister and Yaalon as defense minister.

Who else is in the party?

The list is top-heavy with former generals and light on women. Gantz, Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazi are the top four, followed by Labor Federation leader Avi Nissenkorn. The first women, Miki Haimovich and Orna Barbivai, appear in the seventh and 10th spots, respectively. There are eight women in the top 30 spots. (Israelis vote for a party, not an individual, and parties are awarded seats in the Knesset according to their percentage of the vote tally. It’s up to the party who gets the spots available.)

What do they stand for?

“The new ruling party will bring forth a cadre of security and social leaders to ensure Israel’s security and to reconnect its people and heal the divide within Israeli society,” the leaders said in a joint statement. That’s about as close as they got to outlining a platform.

Lapid and Gantz prefer to describe themselves as “neither right nor left.” Gantz has spoken about eventual “disengagement” in the West Bank but insists that education, national infrastructure and security are his top priorities. Yaalon believes that the idea of perpetual Israeli control over the Palestinians is an illusion, but that the Palestinian leadership is not ready to divide the land and there is enough room in the West Bank to settle 1 million or 2 million more settlers. Lapid rose to prominence on a platform of closing Israel’s wide economic gaps and standing up to the Orthodox religious establishment.

The party was scheduled to deliver a more detailed joint statement to the Israeli media on Thursday evening.

The short answer is maybe. But there has not even been a “maybe” in many years. Polls taken the day before the merger was announced showed a combined Gantz-Lapid slate winning one seat more than Netanyahu’s Likud, and fewer if they run separately. Yesh Atid had been steadily losing seats since Gantz announced his new party, which likely took most of its votes. Once the votes have been counted, the race will be on to form a coalition. Netanyahu will look to his right-wing partners and Gantz-Lapid will turn to the left. It looks like it’s gonna be close.
Retired IDF Chief Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid agree to combine their prime ministerial campaigns in the April 9 Knesset election against incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu.