With two days remaining before Israel’s election lists close, Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel announced Sunday that they will not run together, as Tropper moves closer to a possible alliance with Gadi Eisenkot.
Ynet has learned that talks between Tropper and Eisenkot have advanced, and the assessment within the anti-Netanyahu bloc is that if Tropper ultimately decides to merge with another party, it will be with Eisenkot. Tropper has made preserving places for members of his faction a priority, and a deal with Eisenkot could secure realistic slate positions for Shira Shapira and Elisaf Peretz.
Under the emerging agreement, Tropper would not be placed in the slate’s top four. Instead, he would be given first choice of a ministerial portfolio if Eisenkot enters the next government. The arrangement would not be a technical bloc, meaning Tropper would not be able to split from the faction after the election.
Hendel, who joined forces with Tropper after the latter left Blue and White, will not be part of the move. His next political step remains unclear, although he has recently held separate talks with Benny Gantz.
Tropper and Hendel sought to play down any suggestion of a personal rupture, issuing a joint statement announcing that they had decided to go their separate ways.
“We have more than 20 years of being neighbors, friends, sitting next to each other in synagogue and several years of reserve duty together,” they said. “We both chose to try to serve the public through politics as well. In some cases together.”
“In recent weeks, we established Zionist Home-Reservists together, with a clear goal: forming a Zionist government, and an effort for it to be as broad as possible. Facing the complicated political reality, each of us made a personal decision. Even those who look very hard will not find any bad blood.”
One unresolved issue is Peretz, who has yet to decide whether he would join Eisenkot’s Yashar party as part of a deal with Tropper.
In previous interviews, Peretz said he would not join a government with what he described as non-Zionist parties such as Ra’am, and would also oppose a government that depended on Ra’am abstaining in order to take office.
That position could put him at odds with Eisenkot, who has said he would be prepared to replace Netanyahu with the support of 58 lawmakers if Arab parties enabled such a government by abstaining.
Yoaz Hendel
(Photo: Alex Gambourg)
The competition over Tropper also reflects a wider struggle inside the anti-Netanyahu bloc. Both Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett have sought to bring him into their camps, in a contest that is about more than simply adding another recognizable political figure.
A Tropper-Eisenkot deal could strengthen Eisenkot’s claim to leadership of the bloc and potentially reopen the contest between him and Bennett over who will lead the opposition camp into the election. Despite differences in polling, other parties in the bloc, including Yisrael Beytenu, have yet to fully accept Eisenkot’s leadership.
The expectation that Tropper may ultimately choose Eisenkot rests partly on Yashar’s greater ability to offer viable slate positions to Tropper’s allies.
Tropper is still weighing other possibilities, including running independently with possible connections to Gantz or Ayelet Shaked, but those scenarios are currently considered less likely.