The Reservists-Economic Party will be the most important party in the election even if it is not the largest, its leader Yoaz Hendel told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday
“We may not be the biggest party, but we will be the most important, because we are in nobody’s pocket,” Hendel said.
The party, he explained, will only join a coalition of Zionist parties, and isn't ruling any of them out based on who is or isn't Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“If a government comprising Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu, and [Naftali] Bennett were formed tomorrow morning, I would be part of it,” he added. “I’m not in the ‘anyone but Bibi’ camp.”
Hendel drew a distinction between his opposition to Netanyahu’s leadership and his willingness to join a government that includes him. His coalition decisions, he argued, would depend on its partners and policies rather than the prime minister’s presence alone.
“I make no secret of wanting to persuade everyone not to vote for Bibi. I make no secret of believing he bears responsibility for October 7,” he said. “But Netanyahu is not the central issue in my outlook.”
Reservists-Economic chair says his party will decide coalition for 2026 election
His refusal to sit with the haredi parties, however, would also exclude a partnership with Likud if Netanyahu insisted on bringing them into the coalition.
“I won’t sit with the haredi parties. If Likud can’t part ways with them, I won’t sit with Likud,” Hendel said.
Hendel presented his party’s position outside the two rival blocs as the source of its potential influence, arguing that neither camp could form a government without it.
“Without the Reservists-Economic Party, there is a zero percent chance that either bloc will form a government. Zero, not even one percent,” he said.
That prediction underpins his argument for supporting a smaller party: Rather than strengthening an existing bloc, he wants voters to give his party the leverage to demand a different coalition.
“Every vote for our party influences Israel’s future. Every vote for the blocs keeps us stuck,” he said.
Hendel described a constituency spanning voters on the Right who support settlement but oppose draft evasion, and voters in the Center and on the Left who reject cooperation with Arab parties that have not recognized Hamas as a terrorist organization.
“We want to hold the deciding vote,” he said.
Asked whether pressure on parties hovering around the electoral threshold could persuade him to withdraw, Hendel rejected the premise that other political leaders should determine how his supporters vote.
“That’s a quarter of a million Israelis who have the right to choose what they want to do,” he said. “Nobody can tell them what they should do.”
He criticized both Winter’s alignment with Netanyahu and the haredi parties and what he characterized as Eisenkot, Bennett, and Avigdor Liberman’s membership in an opposing bloc dependent on Arab parties.
“The moment you say you will only go with Netanyahu and the haredi parties, you are in the ‘only Bibi’ bloc. That means you won’t address conscription,” he said of Winter.
“There is no chance of recruiting soldiers when you’re with Goldknopf and Goldknopf is your partner.”
Hendel said he had repeatedly urged Winter to break that partnership, describing his own party as Winter’s “natural political home.”
Asked what would make parties such as Ra’am or Shas acceptable partners, Hendel said his objection was not to Arab or haredi citizens.
“I have nothing against haredim or Arabs,” he said. “I hope that one day there will be a haredi party of people who enlist and serve, and that one day there will be an Arab party of people who serve and see themselves as part of Israel.”
He linked that position to demands for core curriculum studies, the teaching of Zionism, and Israeli flags in publicly funded classrooms. Families rejecting that framework should fund their children’s education themselves, he argued.
“Every Israeli citizen will do something for the country, and anyone who doesn’t will receive nothing.”
Hendel backs Zelekha on economic demands
Hendel’s coalition conditions also extend to the economic agenda of his political partner, Yaron Zelekha of the Economic Party.
“Both issues weigh heavily on reservists,” he said. “It isn’t only conscription. The cost of living hurts them badly, too.”
He also cautioned that easing the burden on existing reservists would take time. Training an infantry soldier takes approximately eight months, he said, while reducing annual reserve service to 30 days under current conditions remained a “pipe dream.”
Asked what he would change about his own previous conduct in politics, Hendel acknowledged making “plenty of mistakes,” pointing to the cycle of elections and dissolving Knessets, arguing that remaining in politics could not be an end in itself.
“Politics brought us to October 7, and politics has to get us out of it,” he said.
Hendel said his experience commanding reservists had taught him that leadership depends on persuasion rather than simply issuing orders - an approach he said also shaped his partnership with Zelekha.
“Ultimately, what matters isn’t your rank but your level of commitment,” he said. “The same applies to politics.”