Ofer Winter, the former IDF general who established the People of Israel party earlier this week, has confirmed that Benjamin Netanyahu is the only candidate his faction will back as prime minister during coalition negotiations following the upcoming Knesset elections.
“We are part of the right-wing camp. Netanyahu is the leader of the right-wing camp, and he is the only person we will recommend,” he wrote on X.
But Winter also said his party would “not dance to anyone’s tune” and called for strictly-Orthodox Israelis to be integrated into the IDF, “with or without the Charedi political operatives”.
That position could put People of Israel on a collision course with Netanyahu’s Likud, which has pushed through a bill freezing arrests of Charedi draft dodgers in a bid to maintain its governing coalition, which includes the Shas and United Torah Judaism Charedi parties.
That legislation is currently being examined by the Supreme Court.
But in his statement, Winter aligned with many of Netanyahu’s other ideological positions, particularly the rejection a potential Palestinian state.
“There will be voluntary emigration from Gaza,” wrote Winter, adding: “there will be decisive victory, not containment.”
Likud had reportedly been concerned that People of Israel would join the “change bloc” alliance of more centrist parties, which has also been termed the “anti-Netanyahu bloc”.
When Winter announced his new party, the prime minister quickly expressed concern that a proliferation of small right-wing parties could dilute his bloc’s share of the vote, and even reportedly attempted to give Winter a reserved spot on the Likud list to prevent him from launching the fledgling right-wing party.
Opinion polls across various Israeli news outlets estimate People of Israel winning between four and eight Knesset seats, with the exception of Channel 13, who predict that People of Israel will not pass the electoral threshold.
The polls are split between expecting Likud to remain in power or predicting Yashar, Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist party, to win the most seats, with most expecting the Together alliance, led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid, to win the third highest number of seats.
People of Israel could, therefore, emerge as an influential force in Israel’s right, with significant potential to sway election outcomes.
Winter is a retired IDF Brigadier General and the former commander of the Givati Brigade, who also led the infamous Duvdevan undercover unit notably depicted in the hit TV series Fauda.
The party’s first candidate slate included Arab-Israeli journalist and activist Yoseph Haddad and former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.
During the launch, the party promised a hawkish approach to security policy and pledged to bring together Israelis from across the country’s religious and ethnic communities.
Winter said that the October 7 massacre had demonstrated the need for new political leadership in Israel in a speech made in Jerusalem during the party’s unveiling.
“Anyone who thinks, after October 7, that the public will accept everything remaining the same in the political sphere, without new people entering the system, is making a bitter mistake,” he said.
The outgoing Knesset is the first Israeli legislature to complete a full four-year term without early dissolution since 1988.
Haddad said he wanted to become the first Arab member of Israel’s security cabinet, and said Arab-Israelis needed politicians who represented them and “not Gaza, Jenin and Ramallah.”
Following the national legislative election, which is scheduled for October 27th, the elected party leaders will meet with President Isaac Herzog, who will choose the Knesset member most likely to have the ability to form a viable government.
This is typically the leader of the party who received the most seats, although that is not a requirement. The selected member will have up to 42 days to negotiate with other parties to form a coalition, and then present this to the Knesset for a vote of confidence. If this is approved, the selected member will become prime minister.
Israel’s elections are based on nationwide proportional representation - citizens vote for a political party rather than specific candidates. The 120 seats of the Knesset are then allocated to parties proportionally to the number of votes received, with an electoral threshold of 3.25 per cent.
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