Zvika Mor, father of former hostage Eitan Mor, joins Smotrich’s Religious Zionism

Former Tikva Forum leader opposed hostage deals, backed comptroller’s October 7 probe over a state commission; far-right minister praises Mor for ‘standing firm’ in his values

Zvika Mor, father of former hostage Eitan Mor, joined Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party on Tuesday, and is set to be placed in a high position on its electoral slate.

Mor, a member of the Religious Zionist community and resident of the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, declared his intention to enter politics in March.

Eitan Mor, who was 23 when taken hostage on October 7, 2023, was a security guard at the Supernova desert party, where Hamas terrorists carried out a massacre, killing 344 partygoers and kidnapping dozens. Eitan Mor was released from captivity on October 13, 2025.

In the wake of his abduction, his father co-founded and led the Tikva Forum, a small group of hostage families who — unlike members of the larger Hostages and Missing Families Forum — consistently opposed partial hostage release agreements with Hamas that involved the release of Palestinian security prisoners and temporary ceasefires in Gaza.

Smotrich repeatedly opposed hostage deals and, on multiple occasions, threatened to quit the government over proposed agreements.

At a press conference shortly after the announcement, Smotrich praised Mor as someone for whom “the national interest, the good of the people, and the state always prevail over personal interests.”

“Zvika additionally demonstrated an ability to stand firm in his opinions and correct values against immense forces acting against him, facing a campaign of poison and hatred that was also directed at us in Religious Zionism,” Smotrich said, referring to Mor’s hawkishness and outspoken opposition to temporary ceasefires and partial hostage deals in Gaza.

Mor is “a true educator and warrior who puts the people of Israel before himself, who acts out of a true and deep sense of mission and is not afraid to pay a personal price for his public and his principles,” Smotrich continued, comparing him to the Biblical patriarch Abraham who was tested by God by being commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac.

At the presser, Mor said he was joining the party “out of a deep sense of mission… for the Jewish identity of the state, for security, for settlement, and for the economy.”

“We are a nation at war. I understood that the return of the hostages must be the result of a decisive victory in the war. And indeed, only the pressures on Hamas brought back all the hostages. I believe that terror is neither appeased nor contained, but defeated,” Mor added.

“My son Eitan returned home, thank God, healthy and whole. But my responsibility did not end. Therefore, today I am joining the Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich,” he declared.

In an interview shortly before his son’s release in October, Mor said that the deal to release him was “very far from what we wished for the State of Israel, because we have to pay for our hostages with 250 terrorists with life sentences — murderers who will no doubt go back to murdering Israelis.”

Mor added that when Eitan returned from captivity, he would understand and support his father’s opposition to previous hostage-ceasefire agreements.

Mor has backed the probe by the state comptroller to examine the failings surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion, which critics fear will act as a largely toothless substitute for a more substantial state commission of inquiry into the massacre.

Religious Zionism has been hovering around the electoral threshold for months, with polls alternately giving it the minimum four seats needed to enter the Knesset or leaving it below the cutoff.

Against that backdrop, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely expected to push for a renewed alliance between Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit ahead of this year’s election.

The pair ran on a joint list in 2022, but Ben Gvir appeared to reject the idea on Monday, telling reporters at the Knesset that Smotrich should run independently.