total-- : --time0:00May 05, 2026War-weary Israelis have clearly tired of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership, but it is still uncertain as to whether opposition forces will be able to put aside their wide ideological differences to defeat him in the October election, Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin told the Haaretz Podcast.Scheindlin, a veteran political analyst and strategist, said the recent announcement that Netanyahu challenger and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will join with Yair Lapid – also a former prime minister – is a harbinger of an opposition seeking to run in a united bloc.What is unclear is whether this push for a united opposition is "an extremely sophisticated political strategy based on mathematical calculations, or it's absolutely an arbitrary guess – a finger in the wind."Lapid and Bennett are joining forces despite the fact that Bennett's right-wing pro-occupation positions are firmly in line with Netanyahu's, "minus the corruption and populism," said Scheindlin, while Lapid supports a two-state solution.Asked if this election is indeed as fateful as it is being framed, Scheindlin replied that in her experience, every election in Israel's history is expected to "change the course of the country. And every time it was true."The difference is, she said, that even if Netanyahu is defeated, "Israel has gone so far in the direction of an undemocratic transformation and becoming a permanent expansionist, occupying undemocratic state – it will be much harder to turn the clock back."In the NewsStarlink Users, Beware – Israeli Tech Can Reveal Your IdentityWith His Iran Deterrence Squandered, Trump Might Feel Forced to Resume WarIran Could Enrich Uranium to Weapons-grade Level if U.S. Attacks, Lawmaker SaysHaaretz CartoonYair Golan Is the Best Choice for IsraelRemembering and rebuilding two years laterICYMIWhatsApp Co-founder Donates Record-breaking $200 Million to Jerusalem HospitalThe Mysterious Copper Scroll and the End of DaysLeaked Video of Arab Lawyer's Violent Arrest Contradicts Israel Police Account'A Slave Economy': Inside Israel's ultra-Orthodox Parallel StateConstruction Begins on Bypass Road to Bring 'One Million' Israelis to West BankZionism Didn't Go Wrong, It Was Always Built This Way