Amcha Yisrael chairman Ofer Winter delivered an apparent broadside against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the current leadership Wednesday, arguing that the failures exposed since the October 7 attack require political change and that those who have failed to deliver over the past three years should not be expected to do so in the next government.
Winter did not name Netanyahu directly in that criticism, but his remarks targeted issues at the heart of the government’s post-October 7 record: the failure to establish a state commission of inquiry with broad public trust, the war in Gaza and the unresolved dispute over Haredi military service.
“Whoever failed for three years to establish a commission of inquiry that would enjoy broad public trust and bring about an investigation of the truth will not succeed in establishing one in the future either,” Winter said.
“Whoever failed for three years to bring about a clear decision in Gaza will no longer succeed in doing so with the current composition,” he added.
Winter also said leaders who had failed to integrate Haredim into the IDF should not be trusted to resolve the issue now.
“Whoever has failed to integrate Haredim into the IDF until today will not do it in the future either,” he said. “No more of the same. What was will not be.”
At the same time, Winter stopped short of breaking politically with Netanyahu. He said last week that Amcha Yisrael remains part of the right-wing bloc and that Netanyahu is the only candidate his party would recommend to form the next government.
“We do not work for any person, only for the people of Israel,” Winter said at the time. “We are in the right-wing camp, and the leader of the right-wing camp is Netanyahu. We will recommend only him, but we will not dance to anyone’s tune.”
The tension between those positions was underscored Wednesday as Winter set firm conditions for joining any future coalition.
He said Amcha Yisrael would refuse to enter a government unless legislation integrating Haredi men into military service and ending widespread draft exemptions is passed before the coalition is formed.
“We will not enter a government that does not pass, before it is established, a law that puts an end to draft evasion,” Winter said. “Without that, we will not sit in the government. Period.”
Winter also rejected proposals to break up his party or fold its candidates into existing right-wing lists.
“We will not break apart. We will not put two people here and two people there,” he said. “I say this to all my friends on the right and also to the prime minister.”
He said the party was not ruling out political alliances altogether, but insisted that any such arrangement would have to represent a break with the existing political order.
“We are not closing the door to connections, but those connections will only be with new and clean people,” he said.
Winter said his party was determined to represent Israelis who serve in the military and their families and to demand greater participation from those who do not.
“We are determined to serve, at any cost, those who serve and their families, and not to make concessions to those who do not take part in the national responsibility,” he said.
“If Amcha Yisrael is strong in the next government, these things will happen.”
Yoseph Haddad
(Photo: Mickey Schmidt)
Yoseph Haddad, No. 2 on the party’s slate, reinforced that message, saying Amcha Yisrael would not trade its principles for cabinet positions or political guarantees.
“None of the amazing team we have entered politics to make anyone feel good, and we are not in anyone’s pocket,” Haddad said. “We came in to do what is right for the State of Israel.”
He said the party would not join any government unless its demands were accepted and presented transparently to the public.
“We will not be part of any government without the changes we demand being adopted,” Haddad said.
“There will be burden-sharing here, whether we are talking about Jews or Arabs, secular, religious or Haredi.”
Winter has also rejected proposals from Netanyahu to merge Amcha Yisrael with either Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism or Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, signaling that while he remains formally aligned with Netanyahu’s bloc, he intends to campaign as an independent force demanding a different governing model after October 7.