Signs grew Wednesday that former military general Ofer Winter was gearing up to announce a new right-wing political party next week ahead of the October 27 Knesset election, adding to a growing list of non-aligned small parties that could make or break the vote’s outcome.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Winter — who has been the subject of controversy for a decade, and was released from the military in 2024 after being passed over for promotion — has long been reported to be mulling forming a party, and is reportedly targeting hawkish voters who are disappointed with the current government.

His party is reportedly set to consist of religious and secular candidates who are all new to politics and not “tainted” by the failures surrounding Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, or by the decades-old sweeping military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men.

Billboards along Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway cryptically teased that Israelis would “soon have whom to vote for,” along with the date August 25. Associates of Winter quoted by Hebrew media confirmed that the hawkish ex-general is behind the signs, and that he is expected to announce the formation of a new party on August 25.

A short clip posted on Wednesday afternoon, reportedly issued by Winter, showed his silhouette walking into an auditorium, along with the same date and the name of a venue — Jerusalem’s Shalva Center.

Polls published this week saw a potential Winter-headed party failing to clear the 3.25% electoral threshold, while largely pulling support from Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party and potentially leaving both parties out of the Knesset and weakening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc. However, Winter could also potentially draw right-wing support from anti-Netanyahu opposition parties such as Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar and Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beytenu.

Channel 12 quoted........

© The Times of Israel