Zionist Home-The Reservists, founded last month, is one of the many parties vying for citizens’ votes in the elections for the 26th Knesset, to be held on October 27.
Led by former Blue and White members and ex-ministers Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel, the party is the evolution of Hendel’s The Reservists. Despite Tropper being listed first on the list, the two announced that they would lead the party as equal partners.
The party has not identified itself as Left or Right but has aligned itself with center-right-leaning policies.
Former culture and sports minister Tropper and former communications minister Hendel may find themselves in the roles of potential kingmakers in the upcoming election, as the two have expressed a willingness to sit on either side of the aisle and may hold the seats that can make or break a coalition.
According to recent polling, the party is hovering around the electoral threshold and, if it succeeds in passing, would enter the Knesset with around four seats, the minimum provided to a party.
Tropper and Hendel have stated their aim is to create a “broad Zionist government,” and will not join a coalition with haredi (ultra-Orthodox) or Arab parties.
“Netanyahu is not my red line. My red line is what kind of ideology the government represents, whether it is a Zionist government,” Hendel previously told The Jerusalem Post.
“Let me put it this way – I can say one thing very clearly: A 61-seat government for Netanyahu will not happen because that means sitting with the ultra-Orthodox parties, not passing a conscription law, and not accepting responsibility for the war.”
Additionally, the two stated that they would demand Hendel be appointed national security minister to join any coalition, citing his security background and “proven record as a government minister with significant achievements.”
Where Zionist Home–The Reservists stands on the major issues
This is a party that has only just formally merged and launched its campaign, so its platform, billed the “Star of David Plan,” covers seven declared core areas: education, equal service, cost of living, settlements, checks and balances, governance, and border-community rehabilitation.
The party has not yet detailed public positions on many issues, such as foreign affairs or Iran, but it is known to hold a hawkish, right-wing stance.
Before the party’s conception, Hendel had made statements in support of relocating roughly one and a half million Gaza Strip residents to Israeli territory, along with a separate proposal for a tent city outside the Strip as a means to defeat Hamas, but the party has yet to state its formal position on the terrorist group or Gaza as a whole.
On the topic of a two-state solution, the current party position is in support of Israeli settlements.
“We will not allow a Palestinian state to be established, and we support a free economy,” Hendel told the Post.
“In Judea and Samaria, we must control the high ground and ensure there is settlement... we support settlement and want to ensure that we are present everywhere and strong on the ground,” he said.
The party was founded on Zionist principles and a push for equal service for all, with serious consequences for draft dodgers. The party also pledged to provide benefits for those who serve, as well as to enforce sanctions on draft evaders.
Under the party’s education plan, public funding would only be provided to schools that teach core curriculum studies.
What a vote for this party is likely to produce
A vote for The Zionist Home-The Reservists is likely a vote to support an attempt at building a “broad Zionist government,” as many opposition party members have expressed is their goal, including Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s B’Yachad, Yair Golan’s Democrats, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu.
While Tropper and Hendel have not explicitly ruled out a partnership with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they have stated they would only agree to a government free of haredi coalition partners with a draft law already passed, a scenario Netanyahu has so far avoided.
However, the party’s largely central views and lack of public commitments mean it would be difficult to determine, definitively, which bloc leader it would follow.
Parties running for Knesset are required to submit finalized party lists to the Central Elections Committee by September 9, meaning that there is still time for a potential merger between Tropper and Hendel and an additional party.