P1 Amcha Yisrael – a genuine alternative

I’ve just come back from a chug bayit (parlour meeting) in Mitzpe Netofa with Amcha Yisrael, and felt I should share a few words in English for anyone not yet familiar with this new party.

Amcha Yisrael was announced on 25 August and is led by former general Ofir Winter and TV presenter Yosef Hadad. Its list is made up of new faces in national politics, drawn from all over the country and reflecting many different kinds of Israelis: religious and secular, Jewish, Arab and Druze.

The party describes itself as right-wing, but, as its name suggests, it also takes a broad, society-wide view of what it means to be “Am Yisrael,” one that embraces non-Jewish Israelis too.

What struck me most at the meeting was that the first two rows were filled with Druze from the north who had come to hear and support Ofir Winter.

More on them in Part 2.