Yair Golan, the head of Israel’s Democrats party, announced today that he is taking the initiative to meet with the other party leaders in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, starting with two meetings on Thursday. (His Democrats party was formed in 2024 as a merger of his Labor Party and the Meretz Party.) He told Channel 12: “I hope to meet with all of them by Sunday.” Of the various leaders of the four parties in the bloc, Golan is the only one who has already announced his support of extending a hand to the two “Arab” parties to form a majority government and send Netanyahu into retirement. Golan told Channel 12 that he will work to persuade the other leaders that they share “an overarching mission: to bring hope to the people of Israel.”

The bloc’s leading opposition candidate, Gadi Eisenkot, and the number-two in the B’Yachad party, Yair Lapid, may be the first two Golan with whom will begin, as they may be more amenable. It is likely Golan will have heavier lifting with B’Yachad’s number-one, Naftali Bennett, and certainly with Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman.