After months of speculation, retired Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter formally launched his new political party, Amcha Israel, on Tuesday, unveiling a slate that includes Arab-Israeli advocacy activist Yoseph Haddad, television journalist Netali Shem Tov and several prominent military, civic and bereaved family figures.
Haddad, a Christian Arab Israeli and wounded IDF veteran, will hold the No. 2 position on the list. Speaking at the launch, he said he wants to become Israel’s public diplomacy minister and the first Arab Israeli to serve in the country’s high-level security cabinet.
Winter presented the party as firmly part of Israel’s political right, pledging to seek as broad a right-wing government as possible while rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“We are a clear and unequivocal part of the right-wing camp,” Winter said. “We will do everything to establish the broadest possible right-wing government with as many Zionist partners as possible.”
He added: “There will never be a Palestinian state here. There is one solution in Gaza: migration.”
Winter framed the coming election as a referendum on Israel’s political leadership after the October 7 massacre.
“Do we want the same political composition that sat in the Knesset on October 7?” he asked, arguing that rebuilding the country required “people who did not take part in the failures of October 7, but fought, paid heavy prices and are ready to enter the political arena.”
“We are here to bring the people of the national camp home,” Winter said, invoking attachment to the Land of Israel, Jewish tradition and national unity. He also pointed to his family’s evacuation from the Gaza settlement bloc of Gush Katif during Israel’s 2005 disengagement as evidence of his longstanding political identification with the right.
Haddad eyes Cabinet seat
Haddad, who served in the IDF’s Golani Brigade and was wounded during his military service, has since become one of Israel’s most prominent pro-Israel advocates internationally.
“I am entering wholeheartedly because I see a new team here, free of politicians, all people of action from different fields who contributed to the country from outside and are now coming together to contribute and influence from inside the Knesset,” he said.
Haddad said one of his central ambitions would be to reestablish a powerful government ministry dedicated to Israel’s international public diplomacy.
Yoseph Haddad
(Photo: Shalev Shalom)
“I will rebuild the ministry, not as a marginal ministry but as a major, leading government ministry with a huge budget devoted entirely to effective and winning Israeli advocacy,” he said, arguing that international messaging should be treated as part of national security.
He also said he intended to become the first Arab Israeli member of the Security Cabinet.
“It is time for a proud Arab Israeli to sit there, someone who understands the enemy and how it thinks, who lives the Middle Eastern mentality,” Haddad said. He added that he hoped Winter would become Israel’s next defense minister.
Haddad had previously registered a political party of his own before joining forces with Winter. According to sources, he had sought three places for his allies among the first 10 slots on Winter’s slate.
Who else is on the list
Also joining Amcha Israel is journalist and news anchor Netali Shem Tov, a resident of northern Israel who was evacuated with her family from Metula after the outbreak of the war.
Sigal Kraunik-Atia, widow of Be’eri security coordinator Arik Kraunik, who was killed defending the kibbutz on October 7, is also on the slate.
Netali Shem Tov
(Photo: Shalev Shalom)
Other candidates include attorney Eran Ben Ari, an opposition figure in the Israel Bar Association; Davidi Ben Zion, deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council and a reserve officer in the Paratroopers Brigade; and retired Col. Eli Gino, a former commander of the Givati reconnaissance unit.
The list also includes former Jerusalem deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, an attorney and social entrepreneur who immigrated to Israel from Gibraltar; economist Ronen Bodner, who previously worked on health policy at the Finance Ministry; and Aviv Ezra, head of a movement that has promoted legislation benefiting reservists.
Lali Deri, whose son, reserve Sgt. Maj. Saadia Yaakov Deri, was killed in combat in Gaza, also will run with the party. She has become a prominent voice in the public debate over military conscription.
A new challenge on Netanyahu’s right
Unlike several other newly formed parties that have sought to position themselves between Israel’s traditional political blocs, Winter is expected to run clearly within the right-wing camp.
He is regarded as favoring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, whom Winter strongly opposes. Polling cited in the Israeli political debate suggests much of Winter’s support is drawn from voters who previously backed parties in Netanyahu’s coalition.
That has made his candidacy a source of concern for Netanyahu and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, who fear that another party on the right could split the vote and leave one or more factions below Israel’s electoral threshold.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
(Photo: GPO)
Netanyahu has recently stepped up pressure against Winter’s independent run, amid fears that it could drain support from Religious Zionism and weaken the overall right-wing bloc.
An alliance between National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party is currently not on the table, with both leaders refusing to run together. Netanyahu and Smotrich have therefore increasingly focused their warnings on Winter, arguing that a fragmented right risks wasting votes.
Winter rejects that argument. He maintains that his party can bring back voters disappointed with the current coalition who no longer intend to support Likud, Religious Zionism or Otzma Yehudit, thereby keeping them inside the broader right-wing bloc rather than losing them altogether.