Likud MK Dan Illouz and Religious Zionism MK Moshe Solomon are said to be in advanced talks about joining a new party being built around former communications minister Yoaz Hendel, called the Reservists Party. According to Ynet reporter Yuval Karni, people close to the lawmakers say the move is driven by deep frustration with the government’s handling of equality in military service.
Hendel confirmed the broad outlines in a closed meeting with political activists on Wednesday night. He said internal polling from Channel 13 shows the new party crossing the electoral threshold, and declared, “We are trying to bring them to strengthen the party’s presence among right-wing people looking for reservists who serve in the army. I will bring both of them to us.”
He also sharply attacked the lawmakers’ current parties, saying they reject the idea that a right-wing coalition should support draft evasion. Hendel said the present coalition had “sold its soul to the devil” by allying with ultra-Orthodox parties that encourage mass draft avoidance during wartime, adding, “We are being ground down again and again and they are transferring budgets.”
Illouz denied the report outright, saying there have been no talks about him joining and that he will continue fighting for the “national and liberal values” on which Likud should be based. Solomon took a more guarded line, saying he receives various approaches but does not discuss such conversations in the press and will make any announcement publicly himself when there is something to say.
