Billboards tease coming political run by controversial ex-general Winter, jarring right

Billboards along Tel Aviv’s highway cryptically teasing that Israelis will “soon have whom to vote for,” along with the date August 25, are being linked to Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter, a controversial former senior IDF officer who is thought to be mulling a Knesset run that could jog the right side of the political map.

Associates of Winter quoted by Hebrew media confirm that the hawkish ex-general is behind the signs, and that he is expected to announce the formation of a new party on August 25.

Polls indicate that Winter would do better than a smattering of other right-wing upstarts, many of them more moderate than the current government, but would largely pull support from the Religious Zionism party, leaving both himself and Religious Zionism short of the 3.25 percent of the vote needed to enter the Knesset and weakening the pro-Netanyahu bloc.

שלט שנתלה סמוך לנתיבי איילון רימז על הצטרפותו של תא"ל במילואים עופר וינטר למערכת הפוליטית. וינטר אמר בשיחות עם מקורביו: "אני בגוש הימין, אתמוך בנתניהו"@Ofer_Hadad pic.twitter.com/xUXc1BvIgn

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) August 19, 2026

Associates of Winter tell Channel 12 that he told them that “I am in the right-wing bloc, I will support [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

Winter, who has been the subject of controversy for a decade, was released from the military in 2024 after being passed over for promotion. Winter first came under criticism during the 2014 Gaza war, when he served as commander of the Givati Brigade, for a letter to his subordinate officers in which he described the operation as a religious war against a “blasphemous” foe.

The former Givati Brigade commander was also later accused of passing along sensitive information about the war effort to then-economy minister Naftali Bennett, bypassing the usual chain of command. There has been speculation for some time that he will enter politics.

Channel 12 also reports that Winter is in talks with right-wing Arab Israeli influencer Yoseph Haddad, who recently registered a party under the name Brave Israel, and Laly Derai, the mother of slain IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Saadia Derai, in order to establish a new joint political slate ahead of the October 27 election.

According to Channel 12, if the three come to an agreement, any announcement will be held off until the last minute to avoid pressure from Netanyahu to link up with another party and avoid competing with allies for the same pool of ballots. The deadline for parties to submit their candidate lists for the election is September 9.

In a statement, Haddad tells the network that he “is considering entering political life and has been engaged with this idea recently. He is holding discussions and meetings with various figures and weighing his steps, and will make a decision soon.” A spokesman for Winter merely says “patience” and Derai denies any political involvement.

Officials from Netanyahu’s Likud party are leaning on the premier to thwart a joint Winter-Haddad-Derai gambit by offering Haddad a reserved spot on the ruling party’s electoral slate, the Maariv daily reports.