ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced a new joint coalition on Sunday ahead of this fall’s elections, offering a potent challenge to the leadership of incumbent premier Benjamin Netanyahu amid domestic discontent.

After ousting Netanyahu in the 2021 elections, right-winger Bennett and centrist Lapid co-led a brief administration from 2021 to 2022, during which they shared the premiership through a leadership rotation deal.

"Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid will announce the first step in the process of reforming the State of Israel: the merger of the Yesh Atid Party and the Bennett 2026 Party into a unified party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett," the two said in a joint statement.

"The move brings together the reform bloc, putting an end to the internal battles and allowing all efforts to be invested in a decisive victory in the upcoming elections and leading Israel to the necessary reform."

Both leaders have frequently criticized Netanyahu’s management of the country's military campaigns since October 2023, with Lapid describing the recent two-week ceasefire deal with Iran as a "political disaster."

Lapid had previously accused the government of driving the country toward a "security disaster" due to a shortage of combat soldiers, echoing a warning reportedly delivered in March to the security cabinet by military chief Eyal Zamir.

He asserted that "the Chief of Staff is warning of the collapse of the army — and the government is ignoring it," while further arguing that the administration "is sending the army into a multi-front war without a strategy, without the necessary means, and with far too few soldiers."

Lapid has also been calling for drafting men from the ultra-Orthodox community, who have largely been exempt from military service since Israel’s self-proclamation as a nation in 1948. While service is mandatory in Israel, men who devote themselves full-time to religious study have historically received exemptions under arrangements established when the ultra-Orthodox population was much smaller.

Notwithstanding the long-standing history of military exemptions, the Supreme Court has long opposed the practice, culminating in a 2024 ruling mandating the draft of ultra-Orthodox men and a follow-up order on Sunday to strip financial benefits from those who refuse to serve.

With Sunday’s ruling, the court is effectively stripping the ultra-Orthodox community – comprising roughly 1.3 million people, including 66,000 military-age men currently benefiting from the exemption – of discounted rates for local taxes, public transit, and childcare. According to military data, just two percent of the community actually comply with conscription orders.

“The High Court of Justice has ruled - draft dodging must end immediately. Netanyahu's government must decide whether it stands with the Zionists or with the draft dodgers,” Lapid wrote on X on Sunday shortly after announcing his coalition with Bennet.

A mainstay of the ultra-conservative Likud party, Netanyahu, however, depends on ultra-Orthodox parties to keep his governing coalition intact and has therefore resisted efforts to end the exemption, a reliance that has only deepened as he battles long-running corruption charges and faces internal waning public trust.

For nearly six years, he has been entangled in a protracted legal scandal, facing charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust across three intertwined cases. They all boil down to the same core accusation: that he allegedly traded political favors to wealthy tycoons in exchange for extravagant gifts and a media machine groomed to flatter him and his family.