Running for National Security Minister
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 led the optical fibre reform as communications minister. He was born in Petah Tikva in 1975 to a father 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 services until he was twenty-nine, including the Shin Bet in the second intifada. He raised the general staff reserve unit Omer in 2015. From 7 October 2023 he led about 200 reservists in an improvised force, then commanded the Magen Be'eri battalion of elite-unit veterans.
He took a doctorate in history at Tel Aviv University, lectured on terror and guerrilla warfare at Bar-Ilan and wrote four books. 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 Derech Eretz. As communications minister he opened the fibre market to all the infrastructure companies and cut fixed-line charges by forty percent. He moved to New Hope, then to a short-lived alliance with Ayelet Shaked, and left politics in 2022. In 2025 he co-founded Givon Defense, which invests in defence start-ups, and founded the Reservists with reservists, wounded soldiers and bereaved families.
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 Reservists line on every issue.