Yoaz Hendel

Yoaz Hendel enters the 2026 election as someone who keeps founding small political vehicles rather than as the leader of a large bloc, and that is what dictates how the public judges him. His résumé is unusual: a Shayetet 13 officer and reserve battalion commander who founded the Be'eri Battalion during the war in Gaza, the holder of a doctorate in history and a columnist, and twice communications minister, identified with the fiber-optic reform and the postal reform. In 2025 he founded The Reservists around one sharp demand — military or national service for all, including Haredim and Arabs — and he pledges to sit only in a "Zionist government" without the Haredi and Arab parties. Against that stands a series of alliances that did not last: Derekh Eretz, New Hope, Zionist Spirit and, this past summer, a joint run with Chili Tropper under the name "Zionist Home – The Reservists," which broke apart in September when Tropper joined Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar! party. Since then he has been running on a joint list with Yaron Zelekha's New Economic Party, which adds the fight against the cost of living and monopolies to his agenda. With some polls placing the list just above the electoral threshold and others below it, opinion of Hendel hinges on whether the public sees him as a man of principle or as a politician who keeps changing vehicles, and October 27 will show whether his conscription agenda will be represented in the next Knesset.