Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has named his new movement the Israel Democratic Party as he bids to make his political comeback.

The former IDF chief of staff, who led the country from 1999 to 2001, will attempt to wrest power from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud when Israel goes to the polls for a second time this year in September.

New elections were called when Mr Netanyahu was unable to put together a governing coalition following the April vote.

Mr Barak, 77, said over the weekend that the state of Israel was “at a moment before the total dissolution of Israeli democracy. Now is the time to return hope and courage to Israel, to unite and return Israel to the right track. “

He has long held the view that Israel could not remain a democratic Jewish state if it continued to occupy the West Bank.

In 2000, he offered Palestiaian president Yasser Arafat a deal that might have laid the foundations for a two-state solution. America’s president Bill Clinton blamed the failure of talks on the Palestinian leader.

Mr Barak served as Defence Minister in coalition governments led by Ehud Olmert and then Mr Netanyahu from 2007 to 2013 before leaving politics.

As Labour leader, Mr Barak defeated Mr Netanyahu in the 1999 election. He left Labour to form the breakaway Independent Party in 2011.

But Mr Netanyahu derided his political return, dismissing Mr Barak as “a fringe candidate with no chance”.