Likud rejects Winter plea, vows to keep up attacks on Amcha

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and coalition party leaders are keeping up a sustained offensive against Ofer Winter, head of the Amcha Yisrael party, despite appeals from Winter's campaign to call off the attacks.

Channel 14 reported Thursday that Winter's team has approached Likud officials asking them to stop the barrage. A senior Likud source confirmed the outreach.

Winter's camp argues that most of Amcha's support comes from center and soft-right voters, not from coalition parties. But the directive inside Likud is unambiguous: keep up the offensive without letup and maintain maximum alert, according to the report.

Channel 14 reported Wednesday that in a meeting between Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the prime minister warned that Winter poses a concrete danger to the right-wing bloc.

"Winter is a danger to the right-wing bloc; he won't pass the threshold, and the media is only promoting him to burn votes," Netanyahu said in the meeting, according to the report. He argued that the focus on Winter is designed solely to waste precious votes from the bloc, and there is also concern that even if Winter does cross the threshold, he will take votes from within the bloc and transfer them leftward to install Avigdor Lieberman as kingmaker.

"Even if he passes, he'll take votes from the bloc and transfer them left to install Lieberman. We need to unite forces to prevent the danger," Netanyahu added. The meeting comes after weeks of sharp attacks and bitter recriminations between Likud and Winter and his party.

The decision to continue the offensive was made after a meeting in the Prime Minister's Office. According to a Channel 14 report, the meeting determined that the Amcha Yisrael chairman poses a threat to the right-wing bloc, in part because of the possibility he will join forces in the future with Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett. Following the meeting, Netanyahu is expected to instruct his slate to act decisively against Winter.

In an earlier meeting on the subject, a sharp argument broke out among senior Likud figures. Minister Shlomo Karhi claimed that "Winter is Kaplan's hope," warning that if Winter succeeds in crossing the threshold, he may join the left, while if he fails, he could cause the loss of votes in the bloc. Minister Ze'ev Elkin also addressed the issue, arguing that if reports of Sharon Shalom's activity in Winter's campaign are accurate, this is "Lieberman full-on."

Ofer Winter (Photo: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Winter, for his part, fired back with a sharp counterattack following the criticism from the right-wing bloc. "They need to dismantle him, they need to bring him down, the time has come to eliminate him, these are not quotes from cabinet members about Sinwar or Nasrallah, but from ministers, MKs or Knesset candidates in Likud against a man who a minute and a half ago they were pressing to reserve a spot on their slate," Winter said.

Winter attacked Netanyahu's inner circle: "Very unfortunately, the prime minister's associates and advisers are giving him bad advice. They are disconnected from the field! They don't understand the state of the right-wing camp and are intoxicated by fictitious polls presented to them by interested pollsters who lock the right into a conception as if victory is in the bag."

Winter went on to clarify that he does not see Avigdor Lieberman as a solution for the right-wing camp. "Someone who builds on senior partners like Yair Golan cannot be decisive," he said of Lieberman. Likud returned fire, calling the claim "an absolute lie" and threatening a libel suit.

The unambiguous directive given in Likud is to continue the offensive without letup and maintain maximum alert, with an emphasis that they will not take any risk that would lead to the waste of precious votes in the bloc. In the prime minister's circle, the possibility of calming tensions and declaring a "ceasefire" with Winter has been examined in recent days, with the aim of enabling a vote-sharing agreement with Otzma Yehudit, but Netanyahu himself continues to oppose the move at this stage.