Winter says he’ll demand ultra-Orthodox IDF service, but would still join coalition with Haredim

Ofer Winter, head of the right-wing People of Israel party, repeated his pledge to join a right-wing government following the October 27 election only if it requires ultra-Orthodox men to serve in the army.

Despite that vow, however, Winter said he would still serve in a government alongside Haredi factions, which have strenuously opposed ultra-Orthodox conscription.

Speaking to Channel 12 news on Saturday, the hawkish former IDF general said that those who serve in the IDF will receive benefits and those who do not will not. He also said that those who refuse to comply with military service requirements will be subject to sanctions.

But although he said that the head of the Ashkenazi Haredi United Torah Judaism party, Yitzhak Goldknopf, is not a Zionist, Winter stated that he would nevertheless sit in a government with UTJ and expressed hope that such a government would not be dependent on ultra-Orthodox votes, enabling it 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,” said Winter.

“I won’t join [a government] until this issue is sorted out. I will go to war on this,” he added. He made the same vow in a speech two months ago.

Asked how such a coalition could be formed given the ultra-Orthodox refusal to countenance military conscription, the neophyte politician claimed he would effectively wield a veto in government, just as the Haredi parties do.

Winter also described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a sucker,” using the term freier, a common Israeli slang word. He chided the premier for failures before and during the war in Gaza, including allowing Qatari money to be sent to Hamas before the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught that sparked the war, and accepting the defense establishment’s wrong-headed tactics for invading Gaza after the attack.

“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 said regarding what he portrayed as a mistaken strategic outlook at the war’s outset. “Netanyahu is a type of person who doesn’t demand of people what he wants them to do.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that the October 7 attack could have been mitigated had he been woken earlier that morning, but Winter opined that the premier wouldn’t have acted differently had he gotten up earlier. “I don’t buy that alibi,” he said.

Despite that criticism, he said he would still sit in a coalition headed by Netanyahu. He categorically ruled out joining a government led by Netanyahu’s chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, and his centrist Yashar party, or any of the other parties opposed to Netanyahu’s leadership.

“I need to choose a side,” Winter said. “I’m on the right, 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 repeated his previously espoused support 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 said that Jewish settlements could then be built in the territory, a position pushed by far-right leaders such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.

Haddad disavows past support for Palestinian state

Meanwhile, Yoseph Haddad, an Arab pro-Israel activist and the number-two candidate in Winter’s party, disavowed his earlier support for Palestinian statehood after an old video resurfaced in which he called for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

In the video circulating on Saturday night, from an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya channel, Haddad said, “The ultimate solution is the State of Israel alongside a State of Palestine.”

But in a lengthy post on X, Haddad said the interview in question aired more than five years ago, and that he has since changed his mind. He wrote that he now opposes Palestinian statehood, just like his party.

He traced his shift back to the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict, dubbed Operation Guardian of the Walls by the IDF, which also saw Arab-Israeli riots in cities across the country.

“When it comes to a Palestinian state, I have already said in the past that during Guardian of the Walls, when I saw the unity between the Palestinians and Arabs within, who were igniting mixed cities, I changed my mind and understood that this is not the solution,” he wrote. “On October 7, I believe that the last people who hadn’t yet understood this now understood who the Palestinians really are.”

He continued, “A Palestinian state will not be established, and in our party’s principles we made sure to explain that in a clear way: ‘A Palestinian state will not be established on the territory of the State of Israel.'”

He added, “To the contrary, we will work to return lands to the Land of Israel.”