Israel’s four main opposition parties announced Thursday that they would sign surplus-vote agreements aimed at maximizing the anti-Netanyahu bloc’s representation in the next Knesset, as the rival sides jockey for advantage ahead of the October 27 elections.

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party announced that it will sign an agreement with Yair Golan’s Democrats, while Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu will sign one with B’Yachad, the joint electoral list headed by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.

“In the upcoming election, the goal is clear: to prevent the loss of votes, maximize the strength of the bloc and replace the government responsible for the October 7 failure,” the Democrats said, welcoming the agreement with Yashar and cooperation across the opposition bloc.

Yashar said the agreements would help ensure that “every ballot cast by Israelis seeking change and the replacement of the government responsible for the October 7 failure will go to one of the parties in the change bloc.”

Unlike the mergers Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed among smaller right-wing parties at risk of failing to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold, the agreements do not combine the four opposition parties into joint lists. Each will run independently and receive its own votes and seats.

Rather, under Israel’s electoral system, the agreements allow each pair to pool their surplus votes when the........

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