Zvika Fogel

Zvika Fogel or Tzvika Foghel (; born 3 November 1956 in Beersheba to the Romanian Ashkenazi couple of Haim and Dietza Fogel and grew up with a brother. He moved to Kvutzat Kinneret during the 9th grade of his schooling and studied at the Beit Yerah High School. He moved to Safed in 2007, following which he worked as an organizational consultant in Netanya and Petah Tikva.

Military career Fogel enlisted in a pilot course for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1975, but did not finish the course and eventually became an officer in the Artillery Corps. He completed his service in 1979, but rejoined the IDF in 1981 and served as the chief of staff to Doron Almog of the Southern Command. During the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, he along with Yom-Tov Samia recommended fortifying IDF outposts in the Gaza Strip. During Operation Defensive Shield and another military operation in 2003, Fogel advised doubling the deployment of IDF troops to avoid being outmanoeuvred. He also served as the artillery coordinator during Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. In a 2018 interview with the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, Fogel confirmed that IDF snipers were authorized to shoot Palestinian teenagers on the border with Gaza Strip by their commanders.

Political career In the 2003 Israeli municipal elections, Fogel ran as a mayoral candidate for Beersheba as an independent candidate with the support of the Shinui party.

After moving to Safed in late 2007, he was appointed by the Ministry of Interior to serve as the head of the Tuba-Zangariyye Council, after the elected council was dissolved due to procedural mismanagement. Fogel rejected the position, but accepted the offer of becoming a member of the town council instead.

In August 2017 Fogel announced that he was running for the position of the head of the Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council as part of the 2018 Israeli municipal elections. However he withdrew his candidacy in September 2018.

In 2020, he joined the Israel Defense and Security Forum which advocates for the annexation of the Jordan Valley. He has supported shooting any Arab who throws stones at an IDF soldier, while being lenient towards Jews who do the same.

He joined the Otzma Yehudit party in September 2022 and was placed tenth on the combined Religious Zionist Party-Otzma Yehudit list for the 2022 Israeli legislative election. He became an MK following the election.

In an interview with British broadcaster Channel 4 in December 2022, Fogel stated that Israel was too "merciful" towards Palestinians and "the concept of proportionality should cease to exist." He further asserted that "if it is [to choose between] one Israeli mother crying, or a thousand Palestinian mothers crying, then a thousand Palestinian mothers will cry."

Fogel was first appointed to the Knesset 's National Security Committee in February 2023, though he briefly left the position in February 2025 after Otzma Yehudit left the government, and was replaced by Boaz Bismuth. That May, Fogel was reinstated in the position, as Otzma Yehudit returned to the government.

In February 2023, Fogel announced his support for reprisal attacks against Palestinian villages in retaliation for terror attacks. Speaking in favor of settler violence targeting the Palestinian town of Huwara, Fogel stated that, "A closed, burnt Huwara — that's what I want to see. That's the only way to achieve deterrence. After a murder like yesterday's, we need burning villages when the IDF doesn't act." Fogel also stated, "We need to stop shying away from collective punishment."

During the Gaza War, Fogel called for the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, saying that there should not be a single Palestinian left in Gaza at the end of the war.