Zionist Home – The Reservists

Zionist Home – The Reservists was announced on July 7, 2026, as an alliance between former minister Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists party and former minister Chili Tropper’s political framework. The leaders presented themselves as equal partners seeking to create a broad Zionist government, and the alliance formally launched its campaign in August.[1][2]

The alliance lasted less than two months. Hendel and Tropper announced separate political paths on September 6, after the joint party had failed to clear the electoral threshold in recent polling.[3] Tropper joined Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar list, while Hendel entered a technical alliance with Yaron Zelekha’s New Economic Party shortly before the candidate-filing deadline.[4][5]

The Reservists — known in Hebrew as HaMiluimnikim (המילואימניקים) — grew from a grassroots movement formed after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.[1] Its networks included reservists, bereaved families, wounded IDF veterans, and civilian volunteers who had organized at the front and in civilian support efforts during the war.[6] Participants sought to bring the volunteerism, unity, and Zionist commitment they associated with wartime service into national recovery and political activity.[6]

The predecessor Reservists party was formally registered on September 18, 2025. Its named founders included attorney Shvut Raanan, reserve Major Yoav Adomi, and Mevaseret Nevo.[7] The organization described itself as both a movement and a political party, while its official site identified its intended electorate as voters “to the right of the center.”[6]

At registration, the party called for promoting Zionist values including settlement, immigrant absorption, and national defense, and for every citizen to perform military or national service. Its founders said they would emphasize principles rather than political boycotts. Their conditions for supporting a government included a Zionist government, universal service, and an inquiry into the failures surrounding October 7.[1][7]

In December 2025, Likud objected that the name “The Reservists” could mislead the public or improperly appropriate the identity of reservists. The Registrar of Political Parties rejected the objection and allowed the party to retain the name.[1]

Yoaz Hendel led the Reservists from its founding and was elected party chair by an “overwhelming majority” in a June 2026 vote among members of the party leadership.[8] The party page gives inconsistent dates for the vote but identifies June 8 in both its original announcement and results notice.[8]

Born in 1975, Hendel commanded a naval special forces unit before becoming a history professor and writer. He briefly served as communications director for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before resigning over unspecified differences, entered the Knesset with Blue and White in 2019, switched to New Hope in 2020, served twice as communications minister, and later joined Yamina.[9]

The Reservists-Economic election list filed for the 2026 election began with Hendel, Yaron Zelekha, Einat Wilf, Haviv Volivovitz, and Yoav Adomi.[4] The Reservists’ earlier internal slate had placed Wilf, Adomi, Shlomi Demri, Tehila Peretz, and Amalia Kinan in its leading positions after Hendel.[10]

Adomi was described as a party co-founder and former deputy battalion commander. Demri served about 500 days in reserve duty during the Iron Swords war; his younger brother Dan was murdered while fleeing the Nova music festival on October 7. Peretz was a former casualty officer who accompanied wounded soldiers and their families, while Kinan had led a community emergency team.[10][11]

On July 7, 2026, Hendel’s Reservists party and MK Chili Tropper, a former Culture and Sport Minister and former Blue and White lawmaker, announced that they would run together and establish a unified political force.[12] Tropper described it as “a Zionist home for Israelis who want to work together, a home in which everyone will serve.”[12] The organization was renamed Zionist Home – The Reservists, and Hendel and Tropper were presented as equal partners. Tropper was listed first on the proposed election slate.[1][2]

The campaign also included Shira Shapira, mother of October 7 victim Aner Shapira, and reservist Elyasaf Peretz.[12] The alliance formally launched its campaign in Jerusalem on August 5, 2026.[13] Tropper said it would seek the national-security portfolio for Hendel, who called internal security “our eighth front” and said Israel was losing on it.[14]

The alliance sought a broad Zionist government and declared itself unaffiliated with either the Netanyahu bloc or the opposition bloc.[15] Hendel summarized its service message by saying, “Every citizen in Israel has an obligation to do something for the country. There will no longer be a situation where there are rights without duties.”[13] He also said reservists were “paying the price” because “The government failed in recruiting all Israelis.”[15]

The Zionist Home – The Reservists alliance was short-lived and failed to clear the 3.25% electoral threshold in recent polling. On September 6, 2026, Hendel and Tropper announced that they would pursue separate political paths, saying that each had made a personal decision in light of the complex political situation.[3]

Tropper joined Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar list in sixth place. The arrangement was not a technical bloc, meaning that he could not split from the faction after the election.[5] Hendel instead agreed to run with economist Yaron Zelekha, head of the New Economic Party, which had been founded in 2020.[4]

The Hendel-Zelekha arrangement was structured as a technical alliance between parties that would remain organizationally independent. They presented it as combining the Reservists’ emphasis on equality in service with Zelekha’s campaign against monopolies and the cost of living.[5] Their stated coalition conditions included joining only a Zionist government and requiring passage of a universal-service law before a government was formed.[16]

The partnership was completed shortly before the filing deadline for the October 27, 2026 election.[4] The Reservists-Economic Party was among 38 lists filed for the election and was assessed as uncertain to enter the Knesset; a broader election overview placed it among the “Others,” rather than among lists considered likely to win seats.[4][17]

The August alliance branded its platform the “Star of David Plan,” or “Magen David Plan.” It covered education, equal service, the cost of living, settlement, checks and balances between branches of government, governance, and rehabilitation of communities along the confrontation line.[15][14] Its education proposals included restricting public funding to schools that taught core curriculum subjects.[15]

Universal Service. The alliance proposed a unified screening center through which citizens would enter military, national, or civilian service according to their abilities and choices, with tailored tracks for different populations.[14] The Reservists’ more detailed platform called for every citizen — Jewish or Arab, secular or religious — to serve from age 18. It proposed designated military frameworks for Haredi recruits, national-service routes for Arab citizens, and temporary exemptions for exceptional Torah or academic scholars and outstanding athletes.[18]

Proposed benefits for those who served included tax credits, land-purchase subsidies, tuition support, discounts on childcare, housing, and municipal taxes, and preferential consideration for public employment.[14][18] Proposed sanctions against those who did not serve included loss of voting and candidacy rights, tax and municipal-tax discounts, driving licenses, permission to leave the country, and access to some public employment. These were party proposals, not descriptions of existing Israeli law.[18]

Security and Settlements. At the alliance stage, Hendel said Israel should control the high ground in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and maintain a settlement presence there. The alliance supported Israeli settlements, pledged investment and expansion of legal settlement, and opposed establishing a Palestinian state.[2][15]

An August 11 profile reported that the alliance had not yet detailed formal positions on Gaza, Hamas, foreign affairs, or Iran.[2] By October 8, the separate Reservists platform proposed Israeli control of Gaza’s perimeter, high ground overlooking Israeli communities, and the Philadelphi Corridor; freedom of military action against terrorist infrastructure; and an administration for Gaza residents who voluntarily wished to emigrate. It also advocated regional cooperation against the Iranian axis and a campaign to disarm Hezbollah if it was not disarmed under existing arrangements.[18]

Economic and Governance Reform. The alliance proposed promoting competition, dismantling monopolies and excessive market concentration, reducing regulatory burdens, removing trade barriers, and providing targeted support to working parents and reservists.[15][14] Governance proposals included decentralizing powers, empowering local government, creating a “Zionist constitution,” and limiting elected officials’ terms. The Reservists’ detailed platform also proposed limiting a prime minister to eight years or two terms, splitting the attorney general’s roles, establishing external oversight of the judiciary, and enacting a Basic Law on Legislation.[14][18]

War-Affected Communities. The alliance pledged assistance for displaced residents and a plan, to be approved within 90 days of forming a government, for the return of northern residents. It also proposed expanded rehabilitation and psychological-support programs in affected communities.[15][14]

The party’s coalition position evolved through its organizational changes. During the Hendel-Tropper alliance, the leaders declared themselves unaffiliated with either the Netanyahu bloc or the opposition bloc and presented the party as a possible foundation for a broad Zionist government.[1][15]

At the campaign launch, Hendel said he would not provide Benjamin Netanyahu with the 61 seats needed to form a government and opposed participation in a government with non-Zionist parties.[14] An August profile nevertheless reported that he had not ruled out joining a Netanyahu-led government if the alliance’s principles were advanced. The same profile said Hendel and Tropper would not join a coalition containing Haredi or Arab parties.[2] Tropper subsequently ruled out serving in a Netanyahu-led government.[17]

After the alliance broke up, Hendel and Zelekha reiterated that they would join only a Zionist government and would require a universal-service law before its formation.[16] On October 8, 2026, Hendel proposed a surplus-vote agreement with Ofer Winter’s party and asked both lists to commit to joining only a Zionist government without ultra-Orthodox or Arab parties. He described the proposal as a blocking bloc against non-Zionist governments, but no completed agreement was reported.[19]

The party’s proposed sanctions against citizens who did not serve — including denial of voting rights, driving licenses, and permission to travel abroad — attracted political attention and intersected with the contested issue of Haredi military exemptions.[1][18] Its support for settlement expansion in the West Bank and opposition to a Palestinian state were also politically contested positions.[2]

The organization’s claim that it helped block what it calls a “draft-dodging law” is its own politically framed description of its activity.[6] Likud’s unsuccessful challenge to the name “The Reservists,” based on the argument that the name could mislead the public, reflected a separate dispute over political claims to represent Israel’s reserve-service community.[1]

Sources also differ modestly in their ideological classifications. The Center for Israel Education describes the Reservists-Economic partnership as center-right, while a Congressional Research Service report placed the original Reservists party in its “CENTER” category.[4][9]