As Likud girds for possible snap primary, Regev, Katz line up behind Netanyahu
Culture minister says she backs Netanyahu ‘no matter what’; MK Michal Shir says she would support PM’s rival Gideon Sa’ar in contest for party leader
Time of Israel, October 3, 2019
Cabinet members Miri Regev and Israel Katz said Thursday they would back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should the party hold a snap primary in a bid to buck Blue and White’s demand that Likud remove the scandal-plagued Netanyahu as leader. Fellow Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar has indicated he would challenge Netanyahu.
“I support Netanyahu to lead Likud” in the event of a primary, said Foreign Minister Israel Katz, according to Channel 12.
Katz, currently No. 3 in Likud, has expressed interest in heading Likud after Netanyahu leaves the party, but has offered full-throated support for Netanyahu until that day.
Regev said she would support Netanyahu “no matter what. Primary or not, he is the best leader of the party and the country and my support for him is unequivocal,” the culture minister told The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu said Thursday he was considering holding a “flash primary” for party leader in an attempt to quell expectations by potential coalition partners of a possible coup against him by senior members should it become clear he cannot form a government amid an ongoing deadlock in coalition talks.
“The aim of the move is to shatter the illusion of a Likud rebellion, which hinders [other parties] from joining a unity government,” Likud said in a statement, following talks between Netanyahu and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman over the latter’s proposal for a unity government that ended after barely an hour Thursday morning and did not make any headway.
Signaling he would challenge Netanyahu, former education minister Sa’ar, who has been long targeted by Netanyahu and accused of seeking to unseat him, tweeted simply: “I’m ready.”
Neither Netanyahu nor rival Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has a clear path to a Knesset majority. Netanyahu is currently trying to muster a coalition, without success. Gantz is likely to be given the task if he fails. Gantz has refused to sit in a coalition with Netanyahu so long as the prime minister is facing indictment, and has been hoping that Sa’ar or another prominent Likud figure might lead a breakaway within the party and join forces with him.
Likud MK Michal Shir told Channel 12 news that “if there are indeed primaries” for the party’s leadership she’ll back her former boss Sa’ar.
Shir stressed, however, that Likud hasn’t yet decided if the party is holding it’s leadership primary.
Freshman Likud MK Shlomo Karhi backed Netanyahu, saying: “I already know who I’m choosing to head Likud, no matter who the candidates are. Netanyahu is to me the most deserving candidate to head Likud and the government for the continued prosperity of the State of Israel.”
Likud MK Sharren Haskel wouldn’t commit to a candidate in an interview with the Srugim news site, only saying, “We’re not there yet. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
At a Likud party meeting later Wednesday afternoon, Netanyahu made no mention of a possible leadership primary in brief remarks before journalists were asked to leave. He said he was making efforts to muster “a wide unity government” and accused Gantz of seeking to subvert democracy by refusing to sit with Netanyahu over his pending corruption indictments.
Gantz “is trying to avoid [heeding] the will of the people,” he charged.
Netanyahu was quoted as telling his colleagues later in the meeting that a Likud leadership primary was needed as soon as possible, to thwart Blue and White’s efforts to break up the party. “I am putting myself up for election,” he was quoted saying.
President Reuven Rivlin has proposed a unity government between Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party in which power would be equally divided, with both men each serving two years as prime minister. Rivlin has also implied that Netanyahu could take an open-ended leave of absence if he is indicted in one or more of the three criminal probes in which he faces charges, including one count of bribery, pending a hearing.
Under the arrangement set out by Rivlin, Gantz, as “interim prime minister” in such a scenario, would enjoy all prime ministerial authority. A legal change to the position of “interim prime minister” would theoretically allow Netanyahu to take a leave of absence if he is formally charged and enable Gantz to avoid serving in a government with a prime minister who is under indictment.
But the two parties have been unable to agree on who would be prime minister first under such an arrangement, among other issues.
Netanyahu has not said he would step down if charged, and, under Israeli law, may not be required to do so. Many legal scholars believe a prime minister could remain in power even if convicted, and would only be required to resign once all appeal processes were exhausted. Blue and White has said that it will not partner with Likud in a coalition unless Netanyahu steps down.
On Wednesday, at the first of Netanyahu’s pre-indictment hearings, his defense team presented state prosecution officials with new arguments and fresh evidence in the cases, which they asserted “completely contradict the claims in the charge sheet.” The hearing continued Thursday.
In August, before September’s election, Netanyahu sought and obtained a signed commitment from the party’s top Knesset candidates saying that they are united behind him and do not intend to replace him. That move came a day after one of Netanyahu’s top rivals said he could try to forge a coalition government after elections with someone else in the party if the prime minister refused to play ball.
Netanyahu required the top 40 candidates for the Knesset to a sign a declaration of loyalty, reading: “We, the undersigned, candidates on the Likud list for the 22nd Knesset, emphasize that we will not be dictated to by any other party. Regardless of the election results, Prime Minister and Likud chair Benjamin Netanyahu is the only Likud candidate for prime minister, and there will be no other candidate.”
The party said at the time that the initiative was meant to stop “spin” from rivals who said they were talking to Likud members about replacing Netanyahu.
A month earlier, Gantz had said that he was “in talks with Likud’s representatives” about the possibility of forming a national unity government without Netanyahu after the election.
Source: Time of Israel
