Mordechai (Moti) Karpel is an Israeli religious Zionist activist, writer, journalist, ideologue, strategist, and intellectual, born on January 17, 1953, in Haifa, Israel. He attended a military boarding school affiliated with the Reali School in Haifa and studied philosophy at the University of Haifa. At age 27 around 1980, he became a baal teshuva (religious penitent) and studied at Machon Meir and Merkaz HaRav yeshivot, undergoing a significant ideological transformation from a secular military background to a leading philosopher in the Religious Zionist movement. He is married to Avivah Karpel, with whom he has eight children, and resides in the Bat Ayin settlement in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank. Karpel co-founded the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction in November 1995 with Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackt, serving as a key leader and primary ideologue—providing theological, philosophical, and strategic scaffolding, including drafting platform documents—until leaving in 2006 over a tactical dispute regarding Knesset elections (he returned for the 2007 Likud primaries); he was the sole candidate for Manhigut Yehudit's LeYisrael list in the 1999 Knesset elections but withdrew three days prior, and the movement sought to take over the Likud party from within to transform Israel into a Jewish state based on Torah values. In the mid-1990s, he co-founded the Chai VeKayam movement with Yehuda Etzion, promoting a Rabbi Kook-inspired redefinition of Zionism and settlement expansion, and engaged in activities on the Temple Mount challenging the status quo to advocate for Jewish prayer rights. His work focuses on the concept of 'Revolutionary Consciousness' and the end of secular Zionism in favor of 'Faith-based Zionism.' He was the first documented Israeli reserve duty refuser in 1993, as a reserve officer protesting Yitzhak Rabin's policies and the Oslo Accords as 'manifestly illegal' under divine law regarding the Land of Israel, and has been active against the Gaza disengagement (where he met his wife). In 2021, he supported the Yamina party and Naftali Bennett government. He was investigated as head of Manhigut Yehudit in the Likud associations affair. In his writing career, he edited the settler journal Nekudah from 2004 to 2010, influencing the discourse of Gush Emunim veterans, and the Lechtachila newsletter for Manhigut Yehudit (1996 onward, paused 2006, resumed 2008). He contributes to Makor Rishon newspaper on topics like Jewish identity, Zionism, security, and religion (e.g., articles such as 'Not Only Among the Hostages: The Jewish Identity Awakened in the War' in 2023 and 'Gaza Does Not Forget Us'), as well as Channel 7 (Arutz Sheva) and Hashiloach, and maintains a blog at http://blog.emuni.co.il/. His books include HaMahapecha HaEmunit (The Faith Revolution / The Revolution of Faith, 2003) and Al Tzir HaZman (On the Time Axis, 2006). As a key figure in faith-based religious Zionism, he is influenced by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and philosopher Shlomo Ben-Dov, advocating for the rise of Jewish faith-based leadership, critiquing Arab nationalism and Islam, and arguing that secular Zionism was a necessary but temporary stage in Jewish history that has reached its end.