He named it on 103FM on 17 August in the party's voice rather than his own — we are aiming for the internal security portfolio — and he leads that party. He has never claimed the defence ministry the site carried here before.
Who they are
Yoaz Hendel is a historian and former naval commando who carried the optical fibre reform through as communications minister. He was born in Petah Tikva in 1975 to parents who had come from Romania, was raised in Elkana in Samaria on religious-Zionist values and became secular at school. He volunteered for Shayetet 13 and commanded a team there, then worked in the security establishment until he was twenty-nine, including in the Shin Bet during the second intifada. He raised the general staff reserve unit Omer in 2015 and the Magen Be’eri battalion during the war that began in 2023.
He took a doctorate in history at Tel Aviv University and lectured on terror and guerrilla warfare at Bar-Ilan. He wrote four books and columns for Yedioth Ahronoth. He resigned from the national public diplomacy directorate in 2012 over the Natan Eshel affair, which he had exposed.
He joined Moshe Yaalon’s Telem in 2019 and entered the Knesset, then split away with Zvi Hauser to form the Derech Eretz faction. In two spells at the communications ministry he opened the fibre market to all the infrastructure companies and cut fixed-line charges by forty per cent. He moved to New Hope, then to a short-lived alliance with Ayelet Shaked, and stepped back from politics in 2022. He founded the defence technology company Givon Defense in 2025.
Positions and record
Draft: A sweeping new service obligation that includes Haredim.
Reservists: Real pay and support for those who carried the war.
Pragmatism: Won't rule out sitting with Netanyahu; Zionist principles first.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.