Report: PM’s circle mulling new party that will take votes from Bennett but join Netanyahu bloc

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s associates are reportedly weighing the option of engineering the emergence of a new security-oriented party that will court the votes of right-wingers disappointed with the premier over the failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre — but that will join forces with the Netanyahu-led bloc after the next elections.

According to an unsourced Channel 12 report, one of the candidates to helm the potential party is IDF former general Ofer Winter, who says his right-wing views halted his advancement in the top echelons of the army and who days ago launched an attack on IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for allegedly refusing to tap him as Netanyahu’s military secretary.

Opinion polls have largely shown Netanyahu’s bloc wouldn’t win a majority in the Knesset if elections were held now (no elections are currently scheduled until late 2026). Furthermore, former prime minister Naftali Bennett is expected to launch a political comeback ahead of the next election, a scenario in which Bennett is predicted to secure the votes of many on the right who don’t support Netanyahu.

The report says the main goal of the possible future party is to compete with Bennett for votes, boosting Netanyahu’s bloc. However, the plan — especially now that it has apparently been leaked to the press — is not sure to go ahead, reportedly because the new party could possibly attract voters of current coalition parties, not just Bennett voters.

Netanyahu’s office denies the report, while Winter doesn’t respond to a Channel 12 request for comment.