Bezalel Smotrich offered Ofer Winter a Defense Ministry post on Wednesday in exchange for withdrawing from the October 27 election, putting the offer winter election fight front and center less than a week before Israelis vote. Winter rejected the offer later in the evening and said he would not surrender.
Winter Rejects Smotrich
The offer was tied to a ministerial position in the Defense Ministry and came from the allocation granted to the Religious Zionist Party as part of potential coalition negotiations. Smotrich 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 him full authority to establish a voluntary emigration directorate for Gaza if he withdrew.
Winter answered with a direct refusal. “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,” he 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 Pressures Winter
The push did not come from Smotrich alone. Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich have both been pressuring Winter to withdraw from the race, and Netanyahu’s statement went further by saying, “Ofer Winter, you are not passing the electoral threshold in any of the polls.” He also said Winter had promised to act responsibly and withdraw if he endangered the right.
Winter has said he has no intention of resigning. Earlier on Wednesday, he said in a Channel 12 interview that he sometimes considers whether it was right or wrong to endorse Netanyahu for prime minister so early in the campaign, then dismissed the issue: “That is irrelevant. I am a man of my word and part of the national camp.”
Right-Wing Bloc Stakes
Winter’s People of Israel Party has recently been polling below or just above the required electoral threshold, which is why every ballot matters in the final stretch. The party has endorsed Netanyahu as prime minister, and Yoseph Haddad said it would continue to do so even as the pressure campaign intensified.
Winter also said he was seeking to be defense minister in the next government, a detail that now sits directly against the offer he turned down. He said he would continue to be part of Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc if a law enforcing conscription and supporting those who serve in the IDF is passed. Whether Winter stays in the race through election day will shape the right-wing bloc’s margin in a contest where even a small shift can move seats below the threshold and change the final count.
