JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced Thursday night that their political parties would run on the same ticket in the coming parliamentary elections.

The alliance between Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu creates a potentially powerful right-wing super bloc that many predict will form the foundation of the next coalition government.

“We must join forces for the sake of Israel’s future,” Netanyahu said at a news conference announcing the alliance, which came as a surprise to many of both parties’ members. “A clear mandate will allow me to focus on what’s really important.”

Though the two parties have worked together in the same coalition since Netanyahu’s election in 2009 and were widely expected to continue that partnership, the closer alliance marks the first time that the parties will offer a consolidated list of candidates.

“This move will sharpen the differences between right and left, and it will boost our capacity to govern, and to grapple with the challenges facing Israel,” said Education Minister Gideon Saar, a Likud member. He said the parties would not be formally merging.

In the current Knesset, as the parliament is known, the two parties hold a combined 42 seats, but they hope by joining forces they can win as many as 50 in the January poll.

Analysts viewed the move as a pre-emptive strike against Israel’s centrist and leftist parties, which are also considering forming a super bloc to challenge Netanyahu. Recent polls predict the revitalized Labor Party could win the second-highest number of seats in the next Knesset.