We posted this video, to which we’ve added subtitles for our readers and listeners, a few weeks ago. It’s an obvious evocation of Ben-Gurion, invited back to see the “country that sank.”
These aren’t simple times in Israel. The war has turned into a slog, soldiers keep dying (yesterday morning we learned of three more) and it’s not entirely clear (at least to those of us not privy to inside conversations) what the real goal is. Very few people here believe that the goal is to free the hostages. After all, the choices we’re giving Hamas are (1) release hostages and then we’re going to kill all of you, or (2) if you don’t release the hostages, we’re going to kill all of you. Not that hard to figure out why there isn’t a deal.
The United States and Iran might sign a deal that is bad for Israel. Israel is becoming a pariah state across Europe (France, the UK, Germany and more) and beyond (Canada, too), and even with the White House, things are tense. The issue of the Haredi draft has yet to explode but might do just that very soon, and the list goes on.
If you are thirty years old in this country, then you have —with the exception of a year and a bit of the Bennett-Lapid government — no real memory after your childhood of any PM other than Bibi Netanyahu. Even many of those who generally support his policies agree that that’s simply nuts. It’s time to have new leadership, time to stop recycling the names that have been in the paper for years and years and years.
Today, we meet David Sherez, who along with others, is one answer to perhaps the most common question our readers ask me: “When is there going to be new leadership.” El Ha-Degel, “To the Flag,” aims to offer the Israeli voter a new choice, and today, we hear why, how and when.
David Sherez grew up in Tel Aviv and served in Sayeret Matkal (Israel’s most elite commando unit) as a combat soldier and commander. He holds a B.A degree in economics from the Hebrew University and, alongside his studies, founded the "Aniyata" Beit Midrash for Torah and Economics studies, with the participation of Haredi students.
He is one of the founders of the social high-tech and real estate company Venn. David joined Matan Yaffe in establishing the "Komzitz" association and the Haredi-Zionist organization "Achvat Torah." David participated in establishing the "Tikun 2024" organization and, together with his colleagues in the movement's leadership, founded the "El HaDegel" movement. He is active in the economic-political field and formulates economic action plans for the State of Israel together with experts and senior figures in the economy.
The link at the top of this posting will take you to the full recording of our conversation; below you will find a transcript for those who prefer to read, prepared for our paid subscribers.
I think one of the most common questions that I get in response to articles that we post, videos that we post, interviews that we do, almost everything that we put up, one of the most common questions is, where are the new names? Where are the new faces? How come Israel recycles, but not for the environment? Israel seems to recycle the same political personalities, not only year after year, but decade after decade. A lot of the people who are now going to run for Prime Minister in 2026 have been around for for a very, very, very long time. People want to know, are there any new faces, new ideas, new parties, new anything coming into the system? The answer to that is yes. We're going to hear today from someone who is leading one of the major initiatives to bring new life, new blood, new oxygen, new ideas to the Israeli political system. His name is David Sherez. There's a full biography in the notes for today, and you will get a bit of a sense of what he's all about from the small video that we have put up that El Hadegel, his group, To the Flag or Towards the Flag, produced. But we're just going to go right in and dive in. So David, I know that you are literally all day long running from place to place to place, and you just came from where you were talking to people and you're doing meetings at homes and whatever. So I want to talk about the project in a second, but first I want to hear about you. Who's David Sherez? How did you grow up? What did you do? What in your life made you decide that Israel needed this now and that you were one of the people that needed to make this happen?
Okay. So thank you for hosting me here. My name is David Sherez. I grew up in Tel Aviv, was born here, a very Zionist family. My father came from Argentina. My mother came from France. In many aspects, it's like a family that came in the initiation of Israel. People who came from a religious home, came from very strong Zionist emotions, loving Israel, connected to the Jewish roots, and not in a religious way. I had the privilege to grow up in such a home, very different from other homes in Tel Aviv in the '90s. I was very active from childhood growing on the concepts of leaving something better than what I received. That was what my father taught me. That was what I did in the scouts. And later on, when I joined the Sayeret Matkal
Sayeret Matkal is Israel's basically most elite Commando Unit.
Yes. Actually, I joined Sayeret Matkal after my scouts guy told me, you need to go there. Later on, unfortunately, he lost his life. He was a soldier in Duvdevan in the army, and his memory still lives in me. I feel that, I was 11 years serving in Sayeret Matkal, I was a commander. I was leading the special missions of the unit. I feel very proud of doing it. Very challenging, amazing people, and serving Israel for the best.
When did you get out of the army?
2014.
So 10 years ago-ish.
Yeah, about 10 years ago. Still with the same vision of making Israel an amazing place for the Jewish people and for everyone that lives here, I established a company, a startup, together with two friends that were with me in the team in the army.
That's very common. People should know a lot about guys who are together in the army. They leave and then do startups together. It's a very common phenomenon.
That's true.
What did this startup do?
The concept was to transform neighborhoods and cities into a vibrant community like a kibbutz, connecting real estate, technology, and community. We are now managing 200,000 units in the US, increasing NOI, but actually majorly increasing the experience of life and participation in the community. And it's amazing. Of course, we also we started in Israel. I was the CEO and later on the chairman. It's a successful company, and it was my gate to the business world. So the recent decade was a lot of business and a lot of also do good. I had the privilege to be partner of rabbi Leybel, David Leybel, Haredi rabbi, and establishing a huge movement in the ultra-Orthodox community that is actually inviting Haredim to join Israel, to do aliyah from Bnei Brak and Measharim, and to understand that they can both be Haredi and get education, work, serve in the army, and everything. I think This is part of what Israel needs now, and this is part of also the vision that is driving me in everything that I do in life. In Kabbalah, it is called the unification of the poles. I think this is the the great answer of our generation, the ability to merge the two powers, the two energies that we have in our people, in the Jewish people. One is a very universal voice connected to the world, understanding what is happening around us, being part of it and respecting it. And the other one is being very connected to our roots and getting the answers from the beginning, the origin of the Jewish people, from the morality, from the knowledge, from the wisdom that we carry, not necessarily in in a religious way. I think this is the answer of Zionism. This is the answer of what Israel could be for the Jewish people and also for the world, the first post-polarized country. I hope we will become one. But actually, now we are not there. That was my last decade, and then October 7th came. A very good friend of mine sent me a message on the morning of October 7th. He's from Kibbutz Beeri, Shahar Tzemach, z"l. He was in the Kitat Konanut, in the defense force of the Kibbutz, and he lost his life there, leaving a wife and two children. This was my entry point to the war. I serve as a reservist in Sayeret Matkal, serving more than 300 days in this war. Actually, tomorrow, I'm going back to Miluim to Reserve duty. I think something really strong happened to me and to many people, actually, from October 7th.
What was that? Because we heard, by the way, a lot of people who went in and spent, I mean, 300 days is a tremendous amount. There's other people that have done 300 days. It's not unusual, but it's a huge amount of time. But we heard a lot of people come out, whether they'd been in for a month or two months or six months or a year. And they all said, We're never going back to the discourse of October 6th. That was the famous line, we're not going back to the way we spoke about each other and to each other on October 6th. Everything on the seventh. People came out of Gaza, and they said, and from the north, and they said, That's it. We're going to do something here. Your generation, people in their 30s, early 40s. But people said, Now we're going to do something different. As you're in, you're serving 300 days, which is an unbelievably long period of time. In a commander unit like Sayeret Matkal, we're not talking about sitting around. You were doing very real things, obviously. Something clicked for you. What was it that clicked for you?
I remember the first time you cross the fence to the enemy side, your heart is beating very hard, you're sweating, and you're thinking about very basic things. Why are we here? What am I fighting for? And I think that I was walking with these questions for many, many days. And I think the answer for this question is part of the answer of Israel today, which is, you have to answer why we are here. We are here because this is our home. We are here because our people started the culture, the language, everything started here. We are here not because of the UN and not because of the Holocaust, also because of that. But actually, we are here because there is a greater purpose for being here. And it's not to fight all day, and it's not to kill everyone, and not to fight among ourselves, but actually to understand that there is a higher purpose, and to do it, and to work together towards that purpose. And this was my understanding. And coming back from the war, fighting with people that a week before could fight on social media because one is supporting Bibi and the other is against Bibi, and hating each other and thinking that you are destroying Israel, but actually fighting together in this war, in a very just war, I feel, understanding that we are actually brothers and we can collaborate, and there is something to unite us, which is not the artificial unification, Oh, let's be all brothers and let's get along. It's not the lovey-dovey one, but actually, it's a very deep one that is uniting us around a goal, a higher goal that is actually the basic goal of Israel, to be a safe and prosperous home for the Jewish people. I would add to all the people that are living here. This is our goal. It's not the greater land of Israel. It's also not an extreme liberal, even progressive vision of unity for everyone. It's something different. This goal is actually what can unite us. The other goals are what is separating us, creating the very hard polarization of the Israeli society. And I think this was the understanding. And with this energy, we came back and we started to talk to people and telling them, look, this is what we need. We came to the politician and told them, work together now, finish this war, and don't let the people fight again about how we're going to investigate October 7th or about giving the mandate back to the people because after such a disaster, this is what needed to be done. And instead of it, they are letting us fight each other and actually burning more and more. And this fight is actually making us weak, hating each other. This is not the hope for Israel. And so after talking to all the politicians, after meeting tens of thousands of Israelis, when they stood, first of all, that the current politicians, they are with some a disease, like a political disease that is making them thinking about only the political interest, the camp, either you're on the side of Bibi or not, and actually not thinking about what is best for Israel and willing to pay the price for that and willing to collaborate with other sides in order to get there. And meeting Israelis that actually they lifted themselves to the situation and they did what was needed. They were called to the flag like we felt we were called to the flag to Gaza and Lebanon and other places. So the people of Israel were called to the flag, but actually the politician didn't. And a lot of people told us, we want you. We were waiting for you for many, many years. You are the generation that needs to come. And we were not thinking originally to go to become politicians. Actually, we hated it because it seems terrible. And we were not in high school, managing the students and everything. It wasn't our plan. We were entrepreneurs. We were leading people in the war. We were managing things. But when I understood that there is a strong calling here. As we heard the calling on October 7th, we heard the calling again, that our generation needs to enter the political sphere.
There's a video that we put up. It's cute, but it's much more than cute. It's cute, but it carries a really big punch. There's these young people, your generation, who take a guy who's obviously Ben Gurion, and they take him to a river and whatever. People have seen the video. You talk about there about the decline It's a very short video, but you talk about the, the decline of the state. Give me briefly a diagnosis in your mind. What's gone wrong here? Writ large, 30,000 feet. What's happened here?
For From the bird's view, around the end of the '60s, after the Six Days War, what happened is that actually the political system left the origin, the basic Zionist idea, and instead of it, adopted ideas that are external to Zionism. If Zionism is a very pragmatic, even a radical pragmatic approach to to how to make Israel a safe and prosperous home for the Jewish people, then the greater land of Israel, or liberal tending towards progressive ideas, are actually not part of it. That's one thing. The second thing is that the political interest became stronger than everything. You had two camps, the right and the left, that actually had ideas and ideologies that were not only unsuccessful, but actually created damage for Israel. Because let's take the left side. The concept of two-state solution. I think it was a good concept to try. But you cannot ignore the fact that the Palestinians or the concept of the Palestinians that is diminishing the existence of Israel. Before they want a state for themselves, they don't want us to be here. And I feel this This is something that we need to acknowledge. I'm not talking about a certain Palestinian or the other. I'm talking as a nation. That's one thing. If you believe that if there will be no two-state solution, there will be no Israel, then on a negotiation level, you're playing to their hands, totally. That's one thing. The other thing is that the right became so extreme, becoming more and more extreme.
In what way?
In a couple of ways. First of all, being so populist and saying, We're going to take all the land. We're going to kick out all the Palestinians. We're going to ignore the international community. We're going to do whatever we want. We're going to become more and more religious. We're going to ignore the fact that half of Israel are secular, liberal, that want to live differently. Thinking that this could work, this could create a sustainable, strong, prosperous home, no. Also, a lot criticism about the right is that they are talking a lot and raising the stakes all the time, but actually, they are not doing it. They are not doing it not only because someone is preventing them. They have the deep state that is preventing, they have the Supreme Court that is preventing. A lot of excuses, I think. But eventually, eventually, they are the ones that are not doing it because they understand that this is not practical. This is not possible for Israel to go on that route and still stay connected to the international community, to stay safe, to stay with a strong economy. Israel must have a strong economy. If we want the best education and the brains are, that's our core. And if we want to have a very strong army, we need a very strong economy as well. So it goes together and you need to be very pragmatic here. And the thing is that in general, the politics became so polarized that Zionists from the left and Zionists from the right are unable to collaborate. They boycott each other. It creates a situation where Zionist party is collaborating with a non-Zionist party in order to overcome the other Zionist party.
The non-Zionist party is between the Arabs on the left and the Haredi on the right.
At the end, we are losing. They are fighting about the relationship between the justice system and the Knesset and everything, the parliament, but eventually not changing anything. They are fighting about recruiting everyone, the Haredi and actually the others as well, but they are not recruiting anyone eventually. They're talking about the economy, but they are not doing anything. They live from fighting, from hating, from this, from breaking the basic connection of the Israeli society. I think this is what is broken here. No one is representing the interests of Israel in the politics and willing to pay the price and coming for a short period of time, doing what is needed, serving the people, and then giving the torch to the next one that will come. Because when you stay too much time in power, you become rotten. That's the thing.
I want to come to El Hadegel in a second, the group that you and your colleagues have started, and you'll explain to us what it is, and you'll explain to us what it isn't, because that's also important for you to express. But before we get there, somebody might say, part of the problem is the system. In other words, yes, there's a lot of terrible stuff going on on the left. There's a lot of terrible stuff going on on the right. And as you put it, there's the left wing Zionists and the right wing Zionists can't talk to each other when you have, by the way, 40 % of the population of the state that is explicitly and unabashedly non-Zionist. The Arabs, understandably, are non-Zionist. The Haredim are essentially non-Zionists, and they together make up 40 % of the country. So the other 60 % cannot afford to be fighting with each other. But some people might say, But look, part of this is the system, leaving aside term limits, which I think most Israelis would agree we desperately need, although you have to find the Prime Minister who's willing to institute that while she or he is actually in office. But they would say there's no local representation. The nature of how the Knesset is built is always going to be people trying to undo coalitions. I'd say the system is broken in terms of the rules of the game. Do you buy that?
I can agree that there is a problem in the system, and I think that there are changes that needs to be done. We are working on that as well.
Can you give us some bullet of what you think we should change?
Constitution?
It's a minor thing like that.
We live in a time where the norm and the rule stick together. There is no higher norm. So everything is actually examined by is it legal or not? But actually, there are a lot of things that are above the legal level. I think this is part of what happened in society, in our culture. So we need to adjust and adapt also the rules, the Israeli Constitution or potential Constitution. So this is part of it, I believe. I think that Zionism 2.0 is an update. It's a take on what we had before. Zionism 2.0 can invite also Arabs and Haredi to join. They need to decide, are they part of the project that is called the Israeli state. Do they accept the narrative that says that this is a state for the Jewish people first, and also for other people that are here? It's a democracy. It's connected to the Jewish roots, not necessarily in a religious way. So we're separating actually religion from the state. We are going to fight our enemies if needed, and we want peace because this is also part of of the roots of being Jewish here. And I think that a lot of people are looking for that, but they have no political home today. They're tired, they're sick and tired of the politicians. They don't want them. There are people who are there 30 years, 25 years. They've been there. They said they promised and they broken every promise. They need to go. So there are a lot of people who are looking for a new home. And this new home is not like an average of the left and the right. We had some center parties. It's a new Zionism. And this is the invitation also to other people that are hearing us now to rejoin Zionism and understand that Zionism today is a lot about identity and what are we fighting for and the ability to merge these two aspects of Israel, the democratic side and the Jewish side, which are both amazing. We can get a lot from them a lot of inspiration and a lot of answers to challenges that all the liberal democracies are facing today and many other countries, actually. I think this is what we're bringing to the table today.
Which brings us to El Hadegel, which brings us to this movement that you and a few other partners have established. El Hadegel means to the flag, towards the flag. What is it and how is it going to address the many problems that you've discussed and many others that we haven't had time to get to? What's its purpose?
El Hadegel is a political movement that is coming to lead Israel and to set a new vision for Israel to celebrate our 100th birthday, 20 something years from now as a very strong country, spiritually, culturally, financially, financially, and also being safe with all the neighbors that we have here, and potentially living in peace with our neighbors. And I think this is possible for us because we are now standing in a crossroad. One line is taking us to a very bad direction, that we are fighting each other, that we are becoming weak, that the education level is dropping, that the economy is not that strong, that brains are leaving. Startups, my friend, startups are established in the US or other places. People are, they have the dilemma if they want to stay here, becoming more religious and not in a good way. And I think this is one direction. And there is another direction where we get along together. We agree on the rules of the game and we respect it. We understand that the different parts of Israel and the Jewish people are actually our advantage. We need to bring them together. We need to find a way to collaborate. We need to be very pragmatic and practical. And we don't need to ask us, is it considered left or is it considered right? We need to ask one question, is it good for Israel or not? And that's our movement. So we are coming to lead our faces towards the political side, and we want to disrupt the political system. Disrupt it in a way that to be the first political party that is not part of any camp, not the right or the left, not the yes, Bibi or the not, Bibi. And because the way politics in Israel are designed, crafted, if you have such a party, even if it's not a huge party and receives, let's say, 5 to 10 mandates, we can hold the key for a Zionist government that is not dependent, not on the Haredim, not on Ben Gvir, not on the Arab parties. They will be invited to join within the lines of the Zionist state. And this is our goal.
How do we get there? How does a bunch of young people, most of you guys are in your 30s, I would imagine, right? Most of you were not even born yet when Bibi started his political career, quite literally. How does a group of people, hugely talented, deeply committed to the state, what's the game plan for moving from having conversations like this and salons in various homes and meeting with the Yeshivot and talking at schools to getting 5-10 mandates? What's the process?
So there are two levels. One is the ideas that we're bringing and the plans, the solutions for real problems that we have in Israel.
Give us some example. On your website, there's four basic areas where you talk about.
We have four flags that are creating. It's like a moon shots for Israel, drastic changes that will take Israel to the right direction. The first thing is around security. We need to be safe here. And we understand that the conception that we have here is broken. We need to change it. We need to understand that Arab countries around us, they don't want us here. That's the situation currently. I hope it will change. And they play a game that is, they see the Eternity. Time is not relevant. They will wait as much as needed. We see what Iran is trying to do. They don't want to conquer Israel. They want to make life miserable here. And sometimes they succeed. And I think that what we need to understand, we need to offer two ways to deal with it. One is saying that if you want normalization with us, if you want peace, you need to let go of the idea that Israel won't exist. You need to change the education. You need to change all the terror and the attacks that you're doing. You need to change all the effort that you're doing globally to shift the mindset of other countries. And this is something that we can check and measure. And if you do that, there is a path for peace. For example, Lebanon, take Hezbollah out, take their weapons. We can have peace. Same in Syria, and also a bit more complicated, but also with the Palestinians. There is another way. If you don't do it, what will happen? We need a leverage there. We need to understand what hurts them the most. What's your answer for that? What hurts them the most?
Losing power.
I think losing land.
Interesting. Okay, that would mean that if you fight us and you lose land, we're not giving it back.
Maybe somewhere in the future, if things will change. But for now, you need to understand that every day that passes, your strategic situation is getting worse. If you're not on the path of normalization and peace, you are on the path of war. And this is something we need to understand. And if we stand like this very strong, I believe the thing will start to change and move. Otherwise, we will continue to suffer time after time after time, doing the same all over again, hurting a lot of people, and actually creating more problems for the future. Because war is creating more war, and we need to find a way to stop it. I think that this is something that we need to do. And around all this flags are things about like all Israelis need to serve in the army. This is part of the agreement between citizens in Israel. Arabs, too? Arabs need to serve, not necessarily the army, but they can serve.
Serve national service or something like that.
National service, Firefighters and hospitals and other places because they are part of our society. And it will make them also feel more connected and partners. And we need it. Israel needs it. And they will serve. The ones that will choose not to serve, regardless from where they come, they won't get all the extra financial benefits that people get in Israel, like support in housing, like discounts in tax and other things. So this is around and also reconnecting to the Zionist approach that says that creating the agriculture and establishing settlements on the border of Israel, the border with Lebanon and Syria and Egypt and Jordan and also you would have Yehuda and Shomron, but not only. So it's a whole plan around Israel, which is part of making sure that Israel will be safe.
That's flag number one.
Yeah. Flag number two, economy. We need to be a very good partner for the world. Other nations, there needs to be a need. And we have no gas, and oil and industry or cheap industry and other things. But we do have our brains and we need a vision how Israel in 50 years from now can be a very strong financial power in the world. We have everything that is needed here, but we need to create the regulation, the tax, the support, the incentives in order to make sure it happens, in order to make sure that the brands stay here and that big companies are developed here, not only startups and exits. For that, we also need education. We're going to touch on that. But two other things. It's very expensive to live in Israel. We have so many people who are cutting parts along the way until it gets to people who need it until it gets to the market. We have a lot of regulation, taxation, and tariffs, and many, many things that we need to stop. Israel needs to have a full free market. And if we do want to support something like agriculture or something like that, it doesn't need to be instead of having a free market, we can support it, but directly to the one that we want support. So that's around the economy. And the third thing is cutting in 30 % the overhead of the public sector. We have today 30 something offices in government. We need maximum 15 ministries. And so we've created a plan together with people that are coming from the public sector to understand how can we make it happen. How could we save almost 30 billion shekels. Because what's happening today in Israel, that part of being a politician is giving jobs to people and not really necessary jobs and not very people are qualified for that, not being accountable for what they came to do. So this is something we must do in Israel.
People have to understand that the way that people build coalitions is they say, if you join my coalition, you'll get a certain amount of ministries. But if I've already given away defense and the economy and I've given away the environment, whatever, I've got to come up with other stuff. So I'll create a Ministry of this and a Ministry of that. But as you said, each Ministry comes with a whole apparatus and hundreds or thousands of jobs and get nothing done and a huge waste of time. You speak in your materials about really wanting not only to cut overhead in government by about 30 %. Some people might say it sounds a little bit like Elon Musk, but it sounds much more grounded to me than that. You talk a lot about what you want to do with the Ministry of Education, specifically. You have a It should operate entirely differently. Tell us what's wrong with the Ministry of Education and what you want to do to change it, because I think people are probably aware that the level of education in Israel is cratering. I mean, it's just our numbers in terms of international tests and so forth is going way down. As you've intimated several times in the conversation, that's our magic sauce. I mean, if we don't have that, we're sunk. We've got to turn the educational system around. What's El Hadegel's approach to the Ministry of Education?
We understand that the Ministry of Education is broken, actually, we have different educational systems in Israel, the Arab one, the Haredi, the secular, the religious one, and they're not speaking in the same language. We need a basic level of what it is to be a citizen in Israel. What is to be a citizen that love the country, that respect the laws, that is democratic and connected to the vision of what is Israel. So that's the first thing. And the second thing is that how do we educate our children to be independent, independently thinking, independent financially, being able to work? And this is not the case today in Israel. Almost half of Israeli children are not receiving such education, and therefore, they are unable to compete in the 21st century market, the global market. And this is something we must have. So what we are saying is that actually education system in Israel today is the operator, is the regulator, and is everything altogether one of the biggest ministries in the government. And this is something we don't need. We need a very, very thin education system that is actually enforcing these two levels of identity and the tools to be an independent citizen, and making sure that if you want to get budget from the state, you need to give this. If you don't give it, you don't get budget. And that's very basic. It's the same as we said around serving. If you don't serve, you don't get. If you don't educate, you don't get. We cannot be, in Israel, you say, in Hebrew, you say Schuna
The neighborhood, yeah. It's like you make deals all the time.
Yeah, you cannot be all the time cutting the edges. If you want to be a strong country, you need to work like that. And you need your citizens to respect that. And you need to have plans. So that's about Ministry of Education. We have an amazing, in every flag that I shared, we have an amazing team, people who are very experienced. And also we have a huge community of Israelis that are either involved in it, care about it, have experience in that, and want to influence. And the last flag is around the system, the political system, there was a lot of debate in Israel and fighting around changing the justice system.
The whole judicial reform issue.
Yeah. And this was part of what broke us and brought us to October 7th, when you were talking about October 6h and not going back there. Actually, this is part of it because people were so scared of that that they were willing to fight and even to jeopardize Israel in order to make sure that we won't become a dictatorship or whatever. But both sides took an extreme position. But actually what is needed is to set up a balanced relationship between the authorities. So the Knesset, the parliament, became very weak in the current years. The justice system became very strong and also the government, and they started fighting between each other. What we are suggesting is a reform that will bring more power to the Knesset, which is representing the people, actually. And they need to have more freedom to to actually criticize and to have also power to tell the Minister of Education, Come, we want performance review. What did you do? What's your budget? Did you meet your goals? Which is something that we don't have today. But another thing that we need, actually, is also more power and freedom for people who are elected to do what they want. In the United States, the President can do almost everything that he wants. In Israel, it's not the case. I'm an entrepreneur. I had a lot of friction with the lawyer of the company. Every time, this is part of it's inherent. And we have it also in the government. It's okay. But we need to make sure that eventually the elected people can do what they want and they need to be accountable for that. Of course, it needs to be to go along the regulation and everything. So I think that part of it is actually making sure that the justice system and and the advisors are in the right position to criticize, to put the red lines, but also not to prevent a very efficient, practical government that is able to actually to execute their plans. And as you said before, limiting terms. I think this is very important, especially in Israel, and not only the Prime Minister, but many other positions that are needed. We're working on that as well. So as you see, we have plans.
Yeah, you have a lot of plans, and your website is filled with them, and there's a lot of people to talk to. If you had a guess, let's just say there are not elections until October 26. That's when they're called for now. They might happen earlier, who knows? But let's assume that that's when they happen. Where would you guess most of the votes for El Hadegel are going to come from? The people who voted for you are people that voted for the center, the left? I mean, you expect to get votes from people that voted from Ben Gvir, for Smotrich, for Bibi. I mean, realistically, you guys, I'm sure, sit around very long hours working this out, trying to figure this. You're incredibly smart. If you had to guess, where's the bulk of the votes going to come from? Was it the people that did all the reserves, their families?
El Hadegel is built like a startup. It's a political movement with a lot of startup-like things. For example, data. We analyze everything, we collect everything. It's a very data-driven organization, automations. Also, we are spread all over Israel with volunteers and employees that are in every big city, in every important place. We are there in the field, meeting people, understanding what are the problems. We are working very hard on that as well. We are very connected to what is happening. And also doing polls and research and everything. So what we see is that there are a lot of people in Israel who are disappointed. They're disappointed from the coalition. They're disappointed from the opposition. They're disappointed from the politicians, from Netanyahu and from Lapid and from everyone. They don't want to see them. They understand that this is what we have now and they need to choose, but they don't want to choose them. These people are all the way from, let's say, Smotrich today, the Tzionut Datit.
Religious line, isn't it?
Until Yesh Atid, until Yair Lapid, the center of liberal side. And also a bit in the edges. But what we see more is that if you go to a young generation under 40, you see that they are more receptive for change. Eventually, in Israel, people are voting very traditionally. When you go to vote, your hand moves, shakes, and it's very hard to make a decision to vote for something else. But after October 7th, people feel that something needs to change. They want a new generation. They want new blood. They want a way. And we are offering a new way. Zionism 2.0, we are offering solutions, very practical one. We are not part of this debate and fighting between yes, Bibi and not Bibi. And this is very important. We don't boycott anyone. We want to be in the government, influencing the government, making sure that it will be a better government because the way it's designed in Israel, you always have one party that is actually anchoring the government and influencing the most the direction that it goes. We want to be this one. And we need support. We need Israelis. And we see there is a momentum. 50,000 people join. It's growing and growing. And on the social media and also the traditional media, we are more and more accepted. And we are there in channel 14 as well and 12, all the channels. So we are working very hard. It's not easy because we were not politicians before. We are not generals. We are not part of the traditional media. So there is a barrier of entry that we need to overcome. And obviously, the politicians made sure that it will be very hard to compete with them. So they created a lot of regulation, a lot of boundaries for us to cross. But we have nothing to lose. If we were willing to go to Gaza and Lebanon and Syria. We were willing, as people who already have children, to risk our lives. So we are now willing to go and to be called to this flag. We hear the calling and we are coming, and we You have nothing to lose. This is the future of our children. This is the future of Israel. And if you come like this when you have nothing to lose and you don't need to serve anyone else besides the people of Israel and the Zionist interests of Israel, then I feel that this is a great chance to succeed.
It's very inspiring, I have to say. For those people who live outside of Israel who very much want to see the new blood and they want to see new faces, they want to hear new names, they want a sense of new opportunities, what can they do to join this? Is there a way for people outside the country to get involved in this?
Of course. I have a lot of friends living in the States, and I feel that the challenge that we are facing, and also global challenge of Jewish people around the world, I want Jewish people that are not living in Israel to be proud of Israel. We need to have a common narrative. And I feel that the challenge that Israel is facing, and on the other hand, the antisimism that people are experiencing outside of Israel, is creating the alliance that actually brought Israel alive, brought Zionism. So there is always this connection. We need endorsement. We need support. We need funds. We need to be invited to come and visit Jewish communities and reconnect them to what is happening in Israel. I know that a lot of people reconnected through the war and supported a lot. We need also to reconnect around the new story. We need to reconnect around the vision I hope and I believe that it is possible that Israel will be the best place for every Jewish people in the world to choose to live here, not because it's not safe to live outside, because it's the best place to live here. I think this is what Israel could be. This is what it needs to be, and this is our responsibility to make sure that it will happen. So, yeah, the invitation is to learn more about us, to invite us, to support us, to donate everything. We'll give all the links later on and also to challenge us. There are issues that we need the challenge as well, and we are open to learn. So we need the help, of course.
David Sherez, to you and your partners in building El Hadegel, thank you for who you are, for what you're doing, for infusing us with a sense of hope and possibility at a time that we desperately need it. It really warms the heart. Wish you tremendous success, and thank you so much for taking time out of an incredibly busy schedule to talk with us today.
Thank you very much. Am Israel Chai.
Amen.
