Netanyahu and Smotrich Lean on Winter's Rabbi to Push Him Out of the Race; He Stays In
The prime minister and his finance minister met privately with Ofer Winter's spiritual mentor in a bid to fold the People of Israel party into the right-wing bloc, but Winter says he's going 'all the way.'
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By Israel Politics Post Staff·Published
Ofer Winter at the launch of his People of Israel party in Jerusalem; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to vote at the Likud primary · Source: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, via The Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich met with Rabbi Eli Sadan, the spiritual mentor of People of Israel party chairman and former IDF general Ofer Winter, in an effort to persuade Winter to drop out of the October 27 election, according to a report by The Times of Israel. Winter rejected the appeal outright, saying he intends to stay in the race through election day.
The pressure campaign reflects Netanyahu's broader push to consolidate right-wing votes before polling day. Winter's party has hovered near the 3.25% electoral threshold in recent surveys, and Netanyahu fears that if it falls short, every vote cast for it will effectively be lost to the right-wing bloc rather than helping it reach a governing majority.
Winter has said he would only join a Netanyahu-led coalition, but only on condition that it pass legislation establishing universal military service, a demand ultra-Orthodox coalition partners firmly oppose. Responding to the pressure, Winter said "the people of Israel want a different kind of politics," and that his campaign is "going all the way" to election day.
The episode came the same week that Nissim Louk, father of hostage Shani Louk, who was killed in the October 7, 2023, attack, announced his endorsement of Winter's party, shortly after the IDF confirmed it had killed the last Hamas operative involved in Shani Louk's abduction.
