Why Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael party is polling below threshold

On the Kippot Barzel panel's weekly segment 'The Good, the Bad and the Irrelevant', the team took apart the collapse of Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael party, which is now polling below the Knesset threshold.

Why is Winter sinking in the polls? From Kippot Barzel (Srugim studio)

'The Good, the Bad and the Irrelevant': Amcha Yisrael became irrelevant

So why is Ofer Winter crashing? The panel pointed to a series of strategic mistakes, one after the other.

Aryeh Yoeli: "What happened is that Amcha Yisrael became irrelevant. The moment you entered the vacuum between Netanyahu and Lapid or Bennett… the moment you said 'I'll do the same thing' --- why do we need you?"

Moshe Shitrit: "An irrelevant party, but for other reasons… He made a mistake, he didn't merge. Look how much good it did for Smotrich and Feiglin." Shitrit added in defence of list member Yoseph Haddad: "One of the few who did hasbara for Israel… The man fought for three years for Israel's name on every possible platform, and that should be appreciated."

Shirel Lalom-Nahir: "From the first line of the agreement between Zehut and Religious Zionism, specific places were reserved for a connection with Winter… Ofer Winter conducted himself, unfortunately, in a very arrogant way, and he needs to disconnect from the role of a general issuing orders and learn to be a leader who leads a public."

Avi Widerman: "First of all, a right-wing party going below the threshold is good… The second thing is that it was some kind of conscience-cleansing --- 'I don't want to vote Likud… so I'll vote Likud through a proxy'. You want to vote Likud? Be a man, vote Likud."

The panel, hosted by Netanel Isaac, includes site editor Aryeh Yoeli, strategic consultant Avi Widerman, Beit Shemesh deputy mayor Moshe Shitrit, and Zehut party candidate Shirel Lalom-Nahir.

The full Kippot Barzel programme is available on the Srugim site.