JPost sits down with...

Author and influencer Oli London once embraced the very ideas he now speaks out against. Three years after October 7, he explains why he stands with Israel.On his eighth trip to Israel in three years, the author of Gender Madness tells The Jerusalem Post studio manager Lara Sukster Mosheyof how watching the October 7 videos in real time, and the protests that followed within hours, pushed him to speak out despite lost relationships and dropped brand deals."If you are silent and if you turn a blind eye, you are complicit," he says. He argues that much of the online hostility toward Israel is driven by trends rather than knowledge, and that "the internet is not the real world."London's perspective is unusual: he says that before finding Christian faith four years ago, he followed the same online trends he now criticizes, including changing his gender identity after heavy TikTok use during COVID.He discusses why he believes LGBTQ activists have embraced the pro-Palestinian cause, how clicks shape media coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, why he thinks influencers stay quiet, and his answer to critics who point to his past.

Nechumi Yaffe and Ziva Glanz are the first women on a haredi party's Knesset slate, and they say the community needs change that comes from within.Yaffe is a Tel Aviv University researcher and former National Security Council adviser. Glanz is a businesswoman who helped run a civilian war room after October 7. Both are running with the new Haredi Public party ahead of the October 27 election.They explain why they left established careers for politics. They describe the reaction from inside the haredi world, and they say Shas and UTJ have chosen to simply ignore them. They also lay out a platform centered on issues they say male haredi MKs have overlooked: higher breast cancer mortality among haredi women, exploitation of working mothers who support large families, and the lack of a state safety net for divorced women and single parents."Women are 50% of the population," Yaffe says. "No decisions should be made about them. They should be made with them."The two candidates speak frankly on the issues dividing Israeli society. On education, Yaffe notes that only 21% of haredi men receive core curriculum studies, compared with nearly all haredi women.On the draft, Glanz backs national responsibility but rejects cutting state funding as a blanket sanction, calling it a "bullying" approach that would harm the whole country. She also draws on her son's service and her wartime work supplying soldiers to argue that the IDF needs deep reform before it can successfully integrate haredi recruits.Polls currently put the Haredi Public party below the electoral threshold, but its candidates offer a rare look at a growing constituency of working, educated haredi women who say no existing party represents them.

Michal Negri's son, Maj. (res.) Roee Negri, rushed to Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7 without being called up and fell fighting there. Now she is running for Knesset with Naftali Bennett.Three years after October 7, the former director-general of the Ra'anana Municipality describes how her son, a team commander in the IDF's LOTAR counterterrorism unit, gathered his team on his own and fought house by house in Be'eri.He was married just six weeks before. She explains why his choice pushed her into politics: "He didn't ask. It wasn't comfortable. He was in the middle of his flourishing life, and he knew that he has to save the country."Negri, No. 7 on Bennett's list, calls for a state commission of inquiry into October 7. She describes the moment her husband told a senior officer who came to brief the family on the Be'eri investigation that he didn't need to hear about Be'eri. He wanted to know what happened at 6:30 that morning.She says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have stepped down the day after the attack. She also argues that drafting the ultra-Orthodox would help unite Israeli society rather than divide it.Drawing on decades in education and local government, Negri describes municipalities stepping in when national ministries collapsed after October 7.She outlines her party's education plan, which includes moving more authority to cities and principals, requiring core curriculum and Zionist values as a condition of state funding, and a starting salary of NIS 12,000 for new teachers.

Former Likud MK Dan Illouz once defended Netanyahu's record. Now running with Yisrael Beytenu, he says Netanyahu cannot lead Israel after October 7.In this Jerusalem Post interview, the Montreal-born former lawmaker explains why he left the party he joined before he even signed a lease in Israel. He points to three reasons: the haredi draft exemption bill, Netanyahu's refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry, and the gap between Likud's stated values and its actions."If there isn't a political price to being prime minister when such disaster happens, then this is something which is dangerous for us as a country," he says. He also explains why he still credits the IDF's achievements in Lebanon and Iran but argues Israel never reached the "total victory" Likud promised, since Hamas still remains in Gaza.Illouz describes himself as "very, very right wing" and religious, yet he supports allowing municipalities to run public transportation on Shabbat. "As a religious Jew, I think it only hurts religion," he says of religious coercion. He sets out his coalition red lines on Netanyahu and on Arab parties, and defends Avigdor Liberman's proposal on Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. He also lays out a sanctions-based plan to enforce haredi enlistment. With elections approaching, the interview offers a rare inside view of the right-wing case against Netanyahu from someone who sat in his faction.

Moshe Feiglin, No. 2 on Smotrich's joint slate, will back Netanyahu, whom he had previously said should have quit on October 8.Ahead of Israel's October 27 election, and seeking the role of Defense Minister, the Zehut leader lays out a platform built on two ideas: a war against what he calls the "Oslo concept," and libertarian individual freedom. Asked about past remarks on Gaza, Feiglin says: "I don't want to see dead babies in Gaza. I want to see Gaza empty." He argues Israel should have annexed the Strip after October 7, rebuilt Gush Katif and opened the borders for Gazans to leave. He also says both left and right share the blame for October 7: "Both sides share the responsibility over here." He explains why he will still recommend Netanyahu, and why he considers Gadi Eisenkot a continuation of the Rabin-Peres era.Feiglin's alliance with Smotrich is a technical bloc, and his platform often breaks from his partner's. He backs cannabis legalization for adults over 21, privatized public transport, and a government of no more than 11 ministers. He tells the story of a self-described leftist voter who supports him because Zehut "has room" for her. The interview also covers his vision for rebuilding the IDF and his response to rising settler violence.