For her, the October 7 attack was the turning point: "I understood that everything I had been shouting about as a social issue turned out to be an existential threat. That's why I came. Unfortunately, I did not succeed." Shem Tov joined the party last August, after years of media work as a presenter on Channels 12 and 13.
While acknowledging that she needs time to examine the campaign's management and the mistakes that were made, she added that the result will not cause her to give up civic involvement: "I will find a way to serve the only Jewish state in the world that I received from my grandmothers as a trust. The opposite of Zionism is despair, and we deserve better."
She heaped praise on the party chairman, Brigadier General (res.) Ofer Winter: "Ofer Winter is a dedicated public servant, a courageous leader, a fighter and a man of truth. We deserve a leader like you, I hope it will still happen." At the end of her remarks, she addressed the emerging Knesset composition and called on elected officials: "There are enough mandates here that want a Jewish and democratic statem go into one room and come out with a government. Israelis deserve this and we need it as a state."
Amcha Yisrael, led by Winter, remained outside the 26th Knesset according to all election polls. Winter himself said in a speech after the defeat that "we came for the long term, the journey has only begun," and accused the national camp of an ugly campaign against him.
During the election campaign, past statements by Shem Tov were exposed that placed her far to the left of the hawkish line the party tried to present. The exposure came just days after a similar storm surrounding Yoseph Haddad, #2 on the party list.
