Continued Likud Beytenu unity to be reviewed soon

“In November, after the municipal elections, we will need to convene and decide on our partnership with the Likud,” Liberman says.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Avigdor Liberman 370 (photo credit: reuters)
Avigdor Liberman 370
(photo credit: reuters)
The agreement that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made last October for his Likud to work together with MK Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu could come to an end after only a year, Liberman indicated Sunday night at a pre-Rosh Hashana toast for activists in his party.
The deal helped Netanyahu remain in power following the January general election. But activists in both parties were frustrated, because they believe that both Likud and Yisrael Beytenu would have won more seats on their own.
“In November, after the [October 22] municipal elections, we will need to convene and decide on our partnership with the Likud,” Liberman said.
“We cannot stall and stutter on this issue anymore, because it harms both parties.”
The decision is expected to be impacted by the verdict in Liberman’s corruption trial, which is expected in October. All indications are that both parties would reject a merger.
All the heads of Likud institutions oppose a merger with Yisrael Beytenu, which would have to pass the Likud central committee.
“They can join the Likud, but there won’t be a deal in which they receive a percentage of the membership in our institutions,” the head of the central committee, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said Monday.
Comments by Danon at a rally last week in which he warned Netanyahu not to relinquish land in an interim agreement with the Palestinians were highlighted Monday night by Channel 2.
In a tape of Danon’s speech at a pre-Rosh Hashana toast in Kiryat Netafim in Samaria that was broadcast, he said “someone who advances such an agreement – his place is not in Likud.”
Danon said following the broadcast that his views were clear and not new and were known by Netanyahu.
“The prime minister has said he opposes interim agreements, so let’s hope we don’t get there,” Danon said.