The demand for political renewal after the October 7 massacre was central to Ofer Winter’s election pitch: Give new people enough power, and they could change Israel’s Right, even under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas’s massacre prompted expectations that a new generation of leaders would emerge, yet familiar figures continued to dominate. Former ministers Yoaz Hendel and Chili Tropper formed a joint party, then split. Tropper joined former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar slate.
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Winter, who had never served in the Knesset, offered another route. His Amcha Yisrael, or People of Israel, party made recruiting parliamentary newcomers part of its appeal, including immigrants, advocates for Israel abroad, and people whose families had been affected by the war.
Israelis vote for party lists. Governments normally depend on alliances commanding at least 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, allowing a small party whose support is essential to bargain for ministries and policy changes. Winter wants the Defense Ministry. First, he has to win enough votes to enter the Knesset.
He spoke with The Jerusalem Post from his temporary office in an old Jerusalem building, where he hosted activities for different parts of Israeli society. On the stairs, people approached him one by one: a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) man, a settler, a man without a kippah, and others.
Each person who approached expressed support for Winter
They expressed support. One asked why he had not joined forces with a small new haredi party advocating military conscription. Winter stopped for everyone, shaking hands, hugging people, and answering questions. His directness appeared to resonate.
“I don’t work for Netanyahu,” he said. “I don’t work for anyone.”
His candidates had other options, he said. “If we had been looking for a seat, we could have found a seat,” he added, meaning he was offered seats on different slates but declined immediately.
Winter acknowledged that supporting Netanyahu had cost him potential voters. He said he was choosing among available alternatives and seeking enough strength to change policy within government.
Calls to send all 120 MKs home were an impractical slogan, Winter said, adding that change would take time.
He refused pressure to merge with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, and he resisted Netanyahu’s efforts to consolidate smaller parties. Parties that fall below the electoral threshold receive no seats.
Winter challenged the assumption that his voters would otherwise support existing right-wing parties. He also objected to the hostility toward him from that camp.
“I’m not Hamas,” he said. “Don’t confuse a friend with an enemy.”
“There are people who cannot bring themselves to vote for the current Right, for the existing government,” he added, citing younger voters and reservists as his core constituency.
Asked what distinguished him from Smotrich, Winter replied: “Look at my list.”
He described it as closer to what the Likud, Netanyahu’s party, should have been: “Religious, nonreligious, Jews, Arabs, Druze.”
No. 2 on his list, Yoseph Haddad, is an Arab Christian advocate for Israel who volunteered for military service and was wounded in the Golani infantry brigade. Winter wants him to become public diplomacy minister and defend Israel’s positions abroad.
Former television journalist Netali Shem Tov’s family was displaced from Metula, near the Lebanese border.
Sigal Kraunik-Atia lost her husband, Kibbutz Be’eri’s security coordinator, in the October 7 massacre.
Winter repeatedly highlights new immigrants to Israel
Winter repeatedly highlighted the olim (new immigrants).
Former Jerusalem deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum immigrated from Gibraltar and became prominent in international advocacy.
Lali Deri arrived alone from France at age 14 and a half and became an activist and commentator. Her son, Saadia Yaakov, was killed fighting in Gaza.
Their experience connected his slate to Jewish communities abroad.
Winter also described a roots trip with his immigrant parents that reinforced his appreciation of having a Jewish state.
The diversity came with clear ideological boundaries. He opposed a Palestinian state and wanted Israel’s Jewish character preserved. He also opposed religious coercion and welcomed non-Jewish citizens who identify with Israel into its leadership.
Winter commanded Givati during the 2014 Gaza war, Operation Protective Edge, and later led the 98th Division. His religiously worded letter to soldiers before the 2014 fighting provoked controversy. He left the military in 2024 after being passed over for promotion to major-general.
“I lived with a sense of mission,” Winter said. “Otherwise, I would not have been able to do it, nor would my family.”
His wife raised eight children while working as a school principal, he said. He insisted he had left the army without anger.
As defense minister, Winter said he wants to change military doctrine “from containment to decisive victory.” He acknowledged wartime achievements but expressed disbelief that Hamas remained standing after years of fighting.
“Reservists are not supposed to serve in the IDF for three years,” he said. “Reservists need to be at home.”
They need to work, educate children, develop the economy, and help absorb immigrants, he added.
Winter described Eisenkot as an architect of the prewar security approach he opposed. Eisenkot could, nevertheless, join a broad government.
“But I don’t think he can be defense minister,” he said.
Winter also welcomed former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman into such a coalition “as ministers.”
Regarding Netanyahu’s responsibility, he was unequivocal.
“Netanyahu is responsible,” he said. “Whether he says it or doesn’t say it, he is responsible. He was prime minister. There wasn’t somebody else here.”
Winter distinguished the immediate failures of the military and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Israel’s domestic security service, from political leaders’ responsibility for accepting assessments and approving policy. The failure had developed over at least a decade, he said.
“Nobody can take the responsibility away from Netanyahu,” he added.
Winter has publicly made military-service legislation a condition for joining the government.
His plan combines greater benefits for those serving, Defense Ministry oversight of yeshivas, and military units accommodating haredi religious requirements.
“The more you serve, the more you receive,” he said. Combat and reserve service should bring greater benefits, he added, and those failing to report would lose access to dealings with the state. He did not elaborate.
Drawing on his experience establishing a haredi company in Givati, Winter said recruitment required the army to honor its promises to religious soldiers.
“Don’t reeducate them,” he said.
Winter said there was room for women combat soldiers alongside religious accommodations, supported continued Torah study for exceptional scholars, and wanted other haredim to have routes into service, education, and work.
Regarding Gaza, he advocated what he calls voluntary emigration.
“Let them choose where they want to go,” he said.
Winter said the government had considered him to lead its emigration initiative, but then backed away after hearing his intentions. He did not identify the officials involved.
Winter’s account of his proposed wartime strategy included moving the population, besieging those who remained, and allowing emigration. He also advocated separating civilians from Hamas and striking the organization with full force.
The interview left unanswered how voluntary departure would operate alongside that pressure and what conditions civilians choosing to remain would face.
“Our soldiers come before enemy civilians,” he said, regarding his wartime instructions.
Winter hopes for a double-digit seat tally, drawing support from the Likud, other right-wing parties, the center, and first-time voters. That remained his assessment of the party’s potential.
Whether he could reshape a Netanyahu government depended on voters giving him enough influence to enforce his demands, he said.
“We will act from within, but we will not compromise on certain things,” Winter said.