Party leaders in the opposition bloc seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that they had agreed to nominate incoming Yashar MK and former minister Matan Kahana as their candidate for Knesset speaker, ahead of the swearing-in of the 26th Knesset.

The announcement comes after an ongoing dispute between party leaders in the bloc – Gadi Eisenkot (Yashar), Naftali Bennett (B’Yachad), Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), and Yair Golan (the Democrats) – over who should hold the role, which will grant the opposition bloc greater control over the Knesset’s legislative agenda in the period before a government is formed.

The bloc also said it will nominate Liberman as chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, incoming Yashar MK Roy Folkman as chair of the Knesset’s Arrangements Committee, and incoming B’Yachad MK Liran Avisar Ben-Horin as chair of the Finance Committee.

Kahana previously held the role of Religious Services minister from 2021 until 2022. He remained an MK until July 2025, when he resigned his seat.

Kahana is an IDF Colonel (res.) who served in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal), serving concurrently with Bennett. He later went to the Israel Air Force’s Flight Academy and became an F-16 pilot, including during the Second Lebanon War.