Winter says he will demand ultra-Orthodox serve in IDF, but will still join coalition with non-Zionist Haredi party

Head of the right-wing People of Israel party Ofer Winter asserts he will insist that ultra-Orthodox men serve in the army if he joins a right-wing government after the upcoming elections, but says that he nevertheless would still serve in a government alongside Haredi factions.

Speaking to Channel 12 news, the hawkish former IDF general says that those who serve in the IDF will receive benefits and those who do not “will not be eligible for extras,” adding that those who refuse to comply with military service requirements will be subject to sanctions.

But although he says that the head of the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party, Yitzhak Goldknopf, is not a Zionist, Winter states he would nevertheless sit in a government with UTJ and expresses the hope that such a government would not be dependent on ultra-Orthodox votes in Knesset so as to pass a new law to draft Haredi men into the army.

“We will establish in law the issue of service in the State of Israel. Whoever serves the country will receive. Someone who serves more, someone who serves in combat, will get much more. Someone who doesn’t serve won’t be eligible for extras,” says Winter.

“I won’t join [a government] until this issue is sorted out. I will go to war on this,” he adds, while refusing to rule out sitting with the Haredi parties.

Asked how such a coalition could be formed given the ultra-Orthodox refusal to countenance obligatory service, the neophyte politician claims he will know how to wield a veto in government just as the Haredi parties do.

Winter also describes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a sucker,” using the Yiddish word freier, for having accepted what he claimed was the defense establishment’s wrong-headed tactics for invading Gaza after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and for what he describes as going along with the practice of sending Qatari money to Hamas.

Despite this, he says he would sit in a coalition headed by Netanyahu and categorically rules out joining a government led by Gadi Eisenkot and his Yashar party, or any of the other parties opposed to Netanyahu’s leadership.

“Netanyahu was part of the concept. I’m not embarrassed to say this,” Winter said of Netanyahu’s willingness to accept the IDF’s plan to storm into Gaza after the October 7 attacks.

“The heads of the system were pushing this perspective; my criticism of the prime minister and decision-makers was that they were the freiers who accepted it,” he says, adding, “Netanyahu is a type of person who doesn’t demand of people what he wants them to do.”

Winter also opines that Netanyahu wouldn’t have acted differently even if he had been awoken earlier on before the Hamas assault unfolded, as the premier has repeatedly claimed.

Asked how he could still sit in a government with Netanyahu despite such criticism, Winter says, “I need to choose a side. I’m on the right-wing, my positions are right-wing… I have criticism of Netanyahu over October 7 and his behavior on lots of things, but that doesn’t mean there is a much better alternative.”

Winter also repeats his previously espoused position for mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, saying it’s “in the national interest” while adding that he will “push as hard as possible for this to happen.”

He also says that Jewish settlements could then be built in the territory.