Running for Defense Minister
Who they are
Ofer Winter is a retired brigadier general who commanded the Givati Brigade through the 2014 Gaza war and later founded the Amcha Israel party.
He was born in Rekhasim in 1971 and grew up in Kiryat Ata, and says he learned soldiering from his father David, a tank crewman who fought on both banks of the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War. As a teenager he went to the military boarding school at the Or Etzion yeshiva and then to the Bnei David academy in Eli. He volunteered for Sayeret Matkal on enlistment, led a platoon in Maglan, and moved to Givati to command its reconnaissance company in Gaza.
As a lieutenant colonel he took the Givati reconnaissance battalion through the second intifada, and it was decorated twice for its raids in the strip; six of his soldiers were killed when an armoured personnel carrier was destroyed in 2004. He was the army’s attache in Washington, then commanded Duvdevan and two brigades before returning to Givati. His order of the day at the start of Operation Protective Edge, written in the language of faith, set off a public argument about religion in the army, and the brigade fought at Rafah, where three of its men were killed. On 7 October 2023 he drove south with his weapon and joined the fighting at Kibbutz Be’eri.
Positions and record
Gaza: Says the only solution in Gaza is emigration, and that a decisive outcome means "no more Arabs in Gaza". In July 2025 he set out pushing the population south under full humanitarian provision while besieging the rest.
A Palestinian state: "There will never be a Palestinian state here."
Haredi enlistment: Opposes a conscription law by force, arguing haredim will come "with love and trust" if the army builds suitable units. Says he spent a decade on it and set up haredi companies in Givati and the paratroopers, and blames the army rather than the haredi public.
The judiciary: "The sovereign is the people, not the court." Wants significant change in the legal system, and is critical of the Attorney General's office.
Coalition: Wants the broadest possible right-wing government under Netanyahu rather than a narrow one, partly so as not to depend on the haredi parties over the draft. Rules out serving under Gadi Eisenkot and rules out Naftali Bennett.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.