‘Shooting us in the back’: Winter says Netanyahu to blame if his party fails to enter Knesset

Ofer Winter, chair of the hawkish People of Israel party, said on Monday that he plans to hold Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible if his party fails to win enough votes to enter the Knesset, accusing the premier of undermining the right-wing camp.

Several recent polls have predicted that in the October 27 election, Winter’s party will fall short of the electoral threshold, which requires parties to win at least 3.25 percent of votes to gain seats in the Knesset.

Speaking at a Yedioth Ahronoth conference on Monday, Winter said Netanyahu is “responsible for the right’s collapse,” following repeated attacks by the premier and Likud against him and his faction. In a speech last week, Netanyahu called Winter “fake right” and later compared him to Naftali Bennett, who supported Netanyahu before breaking with him and leading a short-lived opposition government.

“He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t let up, and he’s shooting us in the back even though we’re a right-wing party,” Winter said. “If you shoot yourself in the foot, don’t be surprised when you limp afterward.”

Winter has pledged to back the prime minister for another term in office. But he has also said that he will not join a Netanyahu government unless it passes legislation mandating universal military service, something Netanyahu’s longtime ultra-Orthodox partners staunchly oppose. In a recent TV interview, Winter said that if Netanyahu opts for the Haredi parties over People of Israel, he can “take a hike.”

At the conference on Monday, Winter said he is prepared for the possibility that his party will not enter the Knesset after the election. “If the public doesn’t want the product, I’ll say, ‘Great, thank you,'” he said.

The infighting on the right came with polls showing a continued deadlock two weeks before Israelis head to the polls. Both Netanyahu’s bloc and the Jewish-led parties supporting him are projected to fall significantly short of a 61-seat majority in the Knesset. Arab-led parties, which have generally not joined governing coalitions, are expected to win most of the remaining seats.

A result in which neither side wins a majority would lead to uncertainty following the vote and the possibility of repeat elections.

Winter, in his speech, called on right-wing politicians in both blocs, including Netanyahu and opposition politicians Bennett and Avigdor Liberman, to “stop fighting,” saying Israel needs “a broad right-wing government.”

Winter added that he last spoke with Netanyahu about two months ago, and denied coordinating campaign messaging with him.

“Since then we’ve only been fighting,” he said, claiming that Netanyahu had initially “wanted me on his side – as a candidate for defense minister.”

Golan: PM waging disinformation effort, won’t accept election loss

Netanyahu also came under attack on Monday from opposition politicians striving to unseat him.

Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, warned at another conference that Netanyahu will not accept the election results if he loses, and predicted that the premier’s Likud party will intensify its efforts to manipulate voters.

He called out the prime minister’s so-called “poison machine,” a term the premier’s critics use to describe alleged efforts orchestrated by Netanyahu and his allies to push misinformation and conspiracy theories on his behalf.

“We know with certainty that he will not accept the election results. In the coming days, the poison machine will operate with unprecedented force, in the hysteria of its final days, in a desperate attempt to manipulate public opinion before, during and after the election,” Golan told the “Law and Lies” conference in Tel Aviv.

“We will hear conspiracies about the Central Elections Committee, malicious rumors about fabricated election fraud intended to destroy the legitimacy of the democratic outcome in advance,” he said.

Golan accused Netanyahu and his allies of operating a “planned, ruthless, well-funded and hierarchical” disinformation campaign directed from the Prime Minister’s Office to manipulate voters and otherwise to suppress turnout.

“They have created a reality in which the corrupt man is the victim, and the patriot who goes out to defend his home is the traitor,” he said, adding that the goal of Netanyahu’s campaign is “to wear us down, to make us think that everything is corrupt, that there is no point in fighting and everyone is a liar. They want you to be afraid, remain silent and stay home.”

Golan pledged that if the anti-Netanyahu bloc forms the next government, it will require tech companies to disclose who finances influence campaigns, and will expose those operating networks of bots, fake profiles and online hate.

He also vowed to hold social media platforms legally accountable for facilitating incitement, foreign influence campaigns and online abuse, saying they should face consequences similar to those imposed in Europe.

“We will lead an aggressive and uncompromising defensive democracy that does not allow its domestic enemies to destroy it from within under the guise of freedom of expression,” he said. “Freedom of expression does not mean freedom to incite or freedom to destroy.”

Eisenkot slams PM after chief of staff accused of falsifying records

Meanwhile, at the Yedioth conference, Gadi Eisenkot, chair of the leading opposition Yashar party, said that he does not trust Netanyahu, following recent accusations by the premier’s former military secretary that Netanyahu’s chief of staff sought to alter phone records from the morning of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.

“We’re learning in recent days that Netanyahu and his office were busy falsifying transcripts and retroactively arranging the picture,” Eisenkot said.

He added that “the goals of the war in Iran were not achieved” and that he does not trust Netanyahu “to make the right decisions in the coming weeks,” amid reports of a possible resumption of fighting with the Islamic Republic in the days before the election.

Eisenkot, whose party has topped most recent election surveys and is polling as the biggest opposition party by a wide margin, also said that the largest anti-Netanyahu party should lead the bloc.

“All along, even a year ago when I had five seats, I thought the bloc’s candidate should be the leader of the largest party,” he said. “I thought that then, and I think so today.”

Eisenkot, born to Moroccan immigrant parents, also criticized Likud’s campaign against him, saying Netanyahu’s mockery of his English and the party’s treatment of its own Mizrahi candidates, such as pro-government Channel 14 commentator Jacob Bardugo, “come from the same place.”

“This comes from hysteria, and what worries me more than racism is a culture of lies,” he said.

Eisenkot also criticized Netanyahu’s family, saying their political involvement makes them fair subjects of scrutiny.

He accused the prime minister’s wife, Sara, of spreading the conspiracy theory that Israeli treachery led to the events of October 7, and added that Netanyahu’s son Yair, who has a record of inflammatory statements, posts videos that “deepen the lies, divisions and theory of betrayal.”