Why would a rising Likud lawmaker walk away from Netanyahu’s party, give back his Knesset seat, and join Avigdor Liberman just weeks before a national election?

Dan Illouz joins the Universal Zionism podcast for one of the most candid interviews of this election season. Born in Montreal to a Moroccan Jewish family, Illouz graduated from McGill Law School and could have walked into any major law firm in the world. Instead, at 23, he made aliyah, put on an IDF uniform as a lone soldier, and dedicated his life to public service in the Jewish state. He served on the Jerusalem City Council, was elected to the Knesset with the Likud, and led Israel’s delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Then came October 7th, and everything changed.

In this conversation, Illouz explains why he believes the Likud still says the right things but no longer acts on them. He talks about his fight for Haredi enlistment in the IDF, and why he sees it as a strategic need for Israel’s survival, not an attack on the ultra-Orthodox community he calls his brothers. He shares why he says the veto on sovereignty in Judea and Samaria came from Benjamin Netanyahu himself, and why he believes Liberman warned about a Hamas invasion years before it happened.

He also draws a powerful lesson from the Bible. The word “Jewish” comes from Judah, the man who took responsibility for his own failure. Illouz argues that true Jewish leadership begins with owning your mistakes.

And he makes a bold claim about the times we are living in: that the return of the Jewish people to their land is an even greater miracle than the Exodus from Egypt.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, this is a rare look inside the choices facing Israeli voters ahead of the October 27th election, from a man who paid a real political price for standing on principle.

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