Kachol Lavan
Kachol Lavan
Leader: Benny Gantz
Current Seats: 35
Recommended candidate for prime minister in the Twenty-First Knesset: Benny Gantz
Supports/Opposes Two-State Solution: Unclear (leans supportive)
Kachol Lavan is the largest opposition ticket, a merger of Benny Gantz’s Hosen Leyisrael, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem. The faction is primarily seen as a vehicle to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with its preferred option being a unity government with a post-Netanyahu Likud. While the party is broadly centrist, its ideological underpinnings are difficult to place precisely, particularly as they concern the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gabi Ashkenazi (former IDF chief of staff and the list’s number four) and Yair Lapid support a two-state solution. Benny Gantz has advocated steps to disengage from the Palestinians without a complete withdrawal from the occupied territories, including policies which could be compatible with both one- and two-state proposals. Moshe Ya’alon (a former IDF chief of staff and number three on the list) publicly opposes the two-state solution, a position he reaffirmed in the early stages of the first 2019 Knesset campaign. Kachol Lavan supports amending the Nation-State Law, rather than overturning it entirely.
Kachol Lavan brings together three former IDF chiefs of staff: Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya'alon, and Gabi Ashkenazi.
In April, Kachol Lavan matched Likud’s performance, winning 35 seats. However, Gantz’s bloc failed to receive sufficient recommendations from other parties to form a coalition, and Likud was not supportive of a national-unity government. Kachol Lavan campaigned on a promise not to sit with the Arab parties, and all four Israeli Arab factions failed to recommend any candidate as prime minister.
Kachol Lavan embraces the idea of a unity government with a post-Netanyahu Likud.
In the current campaign, Benny Gantz remains Kachol Lavan’s number one, and Yair Lapid has retained a rotation agreement in which he would take on the premiership after Gantz’s first two years as prime minister. However, it is unclear how this arrangement would function if Kachol Lavan were to enter into a unity government with Likud.
Party List:
1. Benny Gantz
2. Yair Lapid
3. Moshe Ya’alon
4. Gabi Ashkenaz.
5. Avi Nissenkorn
6. Meir Cohen
7. Miki Haimovich
8. Ofer Shelah
9. Yoaz Hendel
10. Orna Barbivai
11. Michael Biton
12. Chili Tropper
13. Yael German
14. Zvi Hauser
15. Orit Farkash-Hacohen
16. Karin Elharrar
17. Meirav Cohen
18. Yoel Razvozov
19. Asaf Zamir
20. Izhar Shay
21. Elazar Stern
22. Mickey Levy
23. Omer Yankelevich
24. Pnina Tamano-Shata
25. Gadeer Mreeh
26. Ram Ben Barak
27. Alon Shuster
28. Yoav Segalovitz
29. Ram Shefa
30. Boaz Toporovsky
31. Orly Fruman
32. Eitan Ginzburg
33. Gadi Yevarkan
34. Idan Roll
35. Yorai Lahav Hertzanu