Bezalel Smotrich offered Ofer Winter a ministerial position in the Defense Ministry on Wednesday if Winter withdrew from the October 27 election. Winter later rejected the offer and said he would not surrender, keeping the People of Israel Party in the race less than a week before Israelis vote.
Winter rejects Smotrich
Winter said in a Channel 12 interview earlier on Wednesday that he sometimes considers whether endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister so early in the campaign was right or wrong. He answered the question with a line that now frames his response to the pressure on him: “That is irrelevant. I am a man of my word and part of the national camp.”
Later on Wednesday evening, he rejected Smotrich’s offer directly. “You’ve got it wrong. We didn’t come for a job, as you’re accustomed to. We came to bring change and lead a new path,” Winter said. He added, “We came to serve those who serve, not to enable the continuation of political patronage and the division of positions. We will not surrender,”
Netanyahu pressure on Winter
Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich had both been pressing Winter to withdraw from the race. Netanyahu’s statement said, “Ofer Winter, you are not passing the electoral threshold in any of the polls. You promised to act responsibly and withdraw from the race if you endangered the right,” and called on him to step aside now to save the right.
Winter’s party had already endorsed Netanyahu as prime minister, and Yoseph Haddad, who holds the second slot on the People of Israel Knesset slate, said the party would continue to do so. Winter also said he would remain part of Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc if a law enforcing conscription and supporting those who serve in the IDF is passed.
Defense Ministry allocation
Smotrich’s offer drew on the ministerial allocation granted to the Religious Zionist Party in potential coalition negotiations. He also said he would offer Winter a directorate for haredi enlistment and integration into the workforce, while the Religious Zionist Party said it would offer Winter full authority to establish a voluntary emigration directorate for Gaza if he withdrew.
Winter had said he was seeking to be defense minister in the next government, making the offer more than a symbolic request to leave the contest. The fight now centers on whether Winter keeps his name on the ballot through election day, after saying he had no intention of resigning and then rejecting the ministry offer later the same day.
