Likud MKs against slots for Independence members

Hotovely appeals to defense minister’s party: Run on your own.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
MK Danny Danon 311 (photo credit: Courtesy: Knesset)
MK Danny Danon 311
(photo credit: Courtesy: Knesset)
A majority of the Likud’s 27 MKs oppose reserving slots on the Likud list in the next election for Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his Independence Party allies, Likud MKs Danny Danon and Tzipi Hotovely said Sunday.
Danon and Hotovely have drafted petitions signed by MKs in the Likud faction against reserving slots. They intend to present the petitions to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in an effort to preempt him from initiating such a move.
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“Barak is a Trojan horse who would harm the Likud,” Danon said. “He shouldn’t start learning the Betar song, because we won’t let the man who advanced the Oslo agreements sit under the pictures of Begin and Jabotinsky at Likud events.”
Danon has drafted the so-called “Barak Bill,” which would require a politician to be a member of a party for six months before running for Knesset with the party. The bill, which will be brought to a vote in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in two weeks, would apply to the three parties that choose their Knesset slate via primaries: Likud, Kadima, and Labor.
Hotovely praised Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon for coming out strongly against reserving slots for Barak and his allies. She said that when she started petition campaigns to protect the land of Israel, no minister volunteered to lead the effort but on the Barak issue, Ya’alon would lead the way.
She also intends to get Independence Party members to sign a petition urging Barak to allow the party to run independently in the next election and not join Likud. Hotovely’s associates said the time had come to reach out to the grassroots in the new party and let its members have their say.