Hendel, Tropper launch Zionist Home party, demand national security portfolio

Former center-right communications minister Yoaz Hendel and recently resigned Blue and White lawmaker Chili Tropper officially launched the campaign of their new joint party, dubbed Zionist Home-The Reservists, at an event in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, promising to “establish a Zionist, statesmanlike government” and reestablish “governance” in the State of Israel.

The new faction will be chaired by Tropper, who left Benny Gantz’s Blue and White this summer as part of a wave of defections as the center-right party hovered at or beneath the electoral threshold.

The former culture and sports minister is well-regarded, having spent a number of years in the fields of educational and social work before entering politic. He also donated a kidney to a stranger.

Ending months of speculation, Tropper joined Hendel’s The Reservists party last month alongside bereaved family members Shira Shapiro and Elyasaf Peretz, stating at the time that they were “setting up a Zionist home. A home for Israelis who are full of pain and hope, who want to work together to make things better here. A home that will not be torn apart from within. A home in which everybody will serve.”

Addressing Wednesday’s party conference, Tropper, who will head the party’s slate in the October 27 election, demanded the National Security Ministry for Hendel and slammed far-right incumbent Itamar Ben Gvir.

“After years of talking about governance without governance, after years of big promises but with bleeding streets, surging violence, and rampant crime, the time has come for someone who comes to work, not to pose for photos. The time has come to care about personal security, not TikTok likes,” he said.

Ben Gvir has come under public criticism for failing to stem surging violent crime in the Arab community.

The party also demanded “the establishment of a Zionist government and the passage of a conscription law” as a condition for their participation in any coalition.

Hendel, a political scientist and former communications minister who was once an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is one of several right-leaning figures who have criticized the government’s bid to codify the Haredi exemption from military service, but who have not explicitly ruled out being part of a coalition with the premier.

A battalion commander in the IDF reserves who was previously affiliated with Likud, Hendel entered politics in 2019 as a member of Gantz’s Blue and White party. He bounced between a few factions in subsequent years and served in the cabinet between 2020 and 2022.

After he dropped out of the last Knesset race in 2022, when he was allied with former justice minister Ayelet Shaked, Hendel said that he preferred to pay “a political price” rather than lend his support to a narrow government led by Netanyahu.

Announcing the formation of The Reservists party last September, Hendel declared that “the reservists are coming to force the rehabilitation of the political system,” adding that those responsible for the failures of October 7, 2023, “should go home and those who took responsibility that day, and since, should take control of the centers of power and lead the country.”

Addressing supporters on Wednesday evening, Hendel promised to “dismantle” sectoral “autonomies.”

“On one hand, there is a Wild West in the Arab community; on the other, there are ultra-Orthodox shtetls that view the state as ‘heretical rule’ — this is a blow to the very concept upon which the State of Israel was founded. Every citizen in Israel has an obligation to do something for the country. There will no longer be a situation where there are rights without duties,” he said.

“Every citizen in Israel has an obligation to do something for the country. The best of Israelis will serve in the IDF, others in national service.”

In its newly unveiled platform, Hendel and Tropper’s party promised to establish a “model of equal service through a unified screening center, allowing every citizen to integrate into military, national, or civic service according to their abilities and choices, while creating tailored tracks for different populations.”

Draft evaders will be sanctioned while those who serve the state will receive benefits ranging from “significant subsidies for land purchases” to university tuition, tax benefits and “affirmative action in government and public jobs.”

The party further promised to strengthen public education, increase teacher salaries, only fund schools that teach core subjects, and work on “decentralizing the education system.”

The party said it also intends to promote decentralization in terms of governance, empowering local authorities while also strengthening government checks and balances and engaging in what it called a “responsible reform of the legal system.”

The platform also states that it intends to lower the cost of living by encouraging competition and “dismantling monopolies” while also expanding settlement in the country’s periphery and the West Bank. This effort would include a plan for northern residents to be able to return home safely following the past three years of war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In terms of crime, the party said it would establish an Arab crime prevention division within the Shin Bet internal security agency because “Arab crime poses a threat to governance and national security.”

A Channel 13 poll broadcast on Wednesday evening found that if elections were held today, Zionist Home-The Reservists would fail to cross the electoral threshold. Two additional new right and center-right parties, one led by former Likud ministers Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein and the other by Benny Gantz and Dedi Simhi, also would fail to cross the threshold.

Ariela Karmel contributed to this report.