Oliver Mizzi
The New Arab / August 26, 2026
Amcha Yisrael, led by Ofer Winter, is the newest party in Israel’s right-wing camp and is already seeing early polling success.
London – Tuesday saw the establishment of Israel’s newest right-wing party, Amcha Yisrael or ‘People of Israel’, under the leadership of controversial former general Ofer Winter.
Bucking Netanyahu’s call for smaller right-wing parties to fold into already established parties, Winter told an audience of 300 in Jerusalem about the party’s policies and revealed who would be on the electoral list.
Polling in Israel shows that, despite being fresh on the scene, the party may take seats in the Knesset, including from established far-right parties that are important to Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
So who is Winter, how is his party different, and which parties will it impact most? The New Arab takes a look.
A ‘messianic’ general ?
Ofer Winter was a brigadier general in the Israeli army, serving for 34 years until 2024, leaving after being passed over for promotion to major general on two separate occasions.
His posts include commander of the 98th Paratroopers Division, military secretary to the defence minister and chief of staff for the army’s headquarters in the occupied West Bank.
During his time as head of the Givati Brigade in the 2014 Gaza War, he cited religious scripture to his soldiers before entering the besieged Palestinian enclave.
“History chose us to stand at the forefront of the fight against the terrorist enemy from Gaza, who defies, curses, and reviles the God of Israel’s battles. I lift my eyes to heaven and call out with you: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one’. May the Lord, God of Israel, grant us success as we go forth for Your people, Israel, against the enemy that blasphemes Your name,” he was quoted as saying at the time by Haaretz.
The move was criticised at the time as being messianic, according to Israeli Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal.
During the war, Winter commanded Israeli forces during what became known as ‘Black Friday’, when fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas killed three Israelis, including Hadar Goldin, whose body was hidden in Gaza. Israeli forces killed at least 135 Palestinian civilians – including 75 children – according to Palestinian medical sources. It was later revealed that Israel had carried out the Hannibal Directive on ‘Black Friday’ – a military doctrine which green lights the killing of Israeli soldiers and civilians to avoid their capture and ransom.
Since leaving the Israeli military, he, alongside other right-wing and religious-nationalist figures, has been lecturing Israeli cadets and graduates from the army’s officer training school, according to Haaretz, which includes making political statements against former army chiefs Herzi Halevi and Gadi Eisenkot, the latter a frontrunner for the anti-Netanyahu opposition in the elections.
Alongside his previous role in Israel’s wars on Gaza, he told the party’s audience on Tuesday that his friends and family were evicted from the illegal Israeli settlement of Gush Katif in Gaza during Ariel Sharon’s disengagement in 2005, saying: “I’ve paid a heavy personal price throughout my life for the right-wing positions I’ve presented.”
Following the outbreak of Israel’s latest war on Gaza, Winter held secret meetings with Netanyahu in a Tel Aviv apartment to discuss the military strategy, according to Israel’s Channel 13, noting that Winter presented plans for the Israeli conquest of Gaza.
Amcha Yisrael; ‘People of Israel’
The party is called Amcha Yisrael, or ‘People of Israel’, and is based in Jewish scripture, according to Haaretz.
During the launch of his party, Winter laid out the party’s broad agenda, which includes dealing with the “real challenges” in Israel.
This includes “integrating the Haredim into the [Israeli army], connecting Arabs who want the good of the country, bringing about a significant change in the justice system, and dismantling protection rackets and wild crime stretching from the Negev to the Galilee”, the latter a reference to crime in Israel’s Palestinian communities.
Regarding policy towards the Palestinians, Winter’s party takes a similarly hardline stance as other right-wing and far-right parties in Israel, saying: “There will never be a Palestinian state here. There is only one solution for Gaza – emigration.”
Though the party aims to create new space in Israel’s political right, the party also wants to enter into any future coalition government.
Winter said that the party is “a clear, definitive part of the right-wing camp. We will do everything to establish as broad a right-wing government as possible, with as many Zionist partners as possible”.
He announced several people who are set to be on the parliamentary list, including Palestinian citizen of Israel Yosef Haddad, a right-wing social media personality. Haddad also spoke at the event, telling the audience he wanted to become “the first Arab [Palestinian] in Israel’s cabinet”.
Haddad also said he’s seeking to replace the current Palestinian parties in Israel’s Knesset, saying: “As an Israeli Arab, I am here to replace them. It is time for Arab society to have representatives who work on its behalf, and not for Gaza, Jenin and Ramallah. I despise them.”
It is unlikely that Haddad’s inclusion in the party will draw significant numbers of Palestinian voters, the majority of whom are split between Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am and the joint list of Hadash-Ta’al-Balad.
Further candidates include former Channel 13 journalist Netali Shem Tov, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahum, and Laly Derai, the mother of Israeli soldier Saadia Derai who was killed in Gaza.
Sweeping aside Smotrich
Several polls by Israel’s media place Winter’s party in the Knesset, including polling released on Wednesday by Walla that puts Amcha Yisrael at six seats.
A poll from Channel 12 on Monday, before the party’s establishment, placed Amcha Yisrael at four seats, while a Kan poll on Sunday put the party on five seats.
More importantly, all three polls reveal that the party is set to undercut far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party, which is now projected to lose all its Knesset seats.
Smotrich is known as a key driver of Israel’s ongoing annexation efforts in the West Bank and has been internationally sanctioned over his policies and anti-Palestinian statements.
In response to the polling, Smotrich was reported to have said that “there are enough good parties” and described the move as “dangerous”, according to The Times of Israel.
Polling also suggests that the party will take a small chunk of Likud’s support base, with Haaretz noting that it could also take support away from Naftali Bennet and Avigdor Lieberman, two staunchly anti-Netanyahu politicians who are also part of the right-wing Zionist camp.
Oliver Mizzi is a British journalist based in London
