Netanyahu asks to defer Likud vote as Sa’ar support grows

The central committee meeting was set for Thursday, but Netanyahu has asked to delay it because of his trip to Lisbon to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud members in December 24th, 2018 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud members in December 24th, 2018
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A Likud central committee vote to cancel the primary for the party list may be postponed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request, while his rival Gideon Sa’ar gains momentum in a planned leadership primary.
The central committee meeting was set for Thursday, but Netanyahu has asked to delay it because of his trip to Lisbon to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Likud central committee chairman MK Chaim Katz had yet to respond at press time.
The only item on the agenda sent to Likud central committee members this week is canceling the primary for the Likud list in case of another election.
The decision is expected to pass easily, and is part of an effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reassure backbenchers that they will remain lawmakers in the next Knesset, so that they do not break away from Likud and give Blue and White a majority to form a government.
Netanyahu met with over 250 central committee members and party activists from around the country at Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday in preparation for the vote, and to bolster his support in light of challenges within the party from a growing group of people who think Likud needs a new leader.
“We need to see who the Left wants and know not to put him in charge,” Netanyahu told the activists, according to KAN.
Sa’ar tweeted in response to the report that “the slander campaign continues, unfortunately. We will run a different campaign for the Likud’s leadership, a campaign that represents a vision and plans for the future, while respecting the other candidates.”
Supporters of Sa’ar in the central committee petitioned Katz, a Sa’ar ally, to set a date for a primary for the party’s leadership, as well.
Sa’ar’s office declined to comment on the matter.
Likud faction chairman Miki Zohar said he “estimates there will be a primary for the party’s leadership if there is an election,” in an interview with the Knesset Channel on Tuesday.
Sa’ar is the only MK to challenge Netanyahu for the party’s leadership, and demanded a leadership vote before the end of the 21 days in which the Knesset can choose a candidate to form the next government.
Netanyahu agreed last week to hold the vote but in six weeks, long after the 21 days are over. No date has been set yet.
Sa’ar has said that Netanyahu should be voted out because “it is quite clear he unfortunately cannot form a government and won’t be able to in the foreseeable future.”
Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic conference last month, Sa’ar said: “What’s the horizon? Where is the hope? [Netanyahu] can’t drag the country to elections forever.”
Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan, an influential Likud figure, called for a primary in a Facebook post, praising Sa’ar but stopping short of endorsing him.
Dagan described Netanyahu as “one of the great leaders of the State of Israel, a level above many of the prime ministers before him,” but warned that “rule by the nationalist camp is in clear danger. Our central goal is continuing leading the State of Israel through a Zionist government with values, and today… it is understood and clear that will only happen in a government based on the nationalist camp.
“In the situation created, and since there appears to be no possibility of forming a government, we must have primaries for the head of the movement. MK Gideon Sa’ar is a worthy leader with values, one of the pillars of the nationalist camp, who proved himself in recent years as a protector of the Land of Israel and the values of Zionism and the nation. It would be most appropriate for him to run in the primaries for the leadership of the movement ahead of the next election.”
Dagan’s statement comes after activists in the Likud’s right flank, led by Susie Dym and Natan Engelsman, tried to convince the party’s MKs to gather 61 signatures for a different one of them to be prime minister, saying last week that “any right-wing prime minister is preferable to an election.”
Likud’s spokesman denied a report on Channel 12 on Tuesday night that the party plans to launch a campaign criticizing the judiciary and saying that an injustice has been done to Netanyahu.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu values the courts very much, and anyway, a campaign like this is not on the agenda,” the party’s spokesman said.