Efforts by Likud activists to begin the process of finding a new Likud leader to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were reportedly stymied on Sunday, as Netanyahu loyalists ignored them.
Groups of Likud activists have tried in vain to convene the party’s institutions, including its 80-member governing secretariat and its 3,000-member central committee. The chairman of the secretariat, Finance Minister Israel Katz, and the chairman of the central committee, MK Haim Katz, have not agreed to convene their institutions.
The chairman of the secretariat’s oversight committee, Avigdor Hadar, submitted the quorum of signatures required to force Israel Katz to convene the secretariat. A group of hundreds of elderly Likud activists who call themselves the party founders wrote another letter to Katz.
If Katz ignores the requests, Hadar and other Likud activists said they would petition the Likud’s internal court.
The head judge of the court, former MK Michael Kleiner, said the request would be heard by three judges, including himself, after the court received a response to Hadar’s request from the Likud’s attorney-general, Avi Halevy, on Netanyahu’s behalf.
Likud members chose Netanyahu as the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 23rd Knesset in a primary with no opposition. The central committee extended it to the 24th Knesset, which is the current one. The committee could decide to initiate a primary for the 25th Knesset, as Likud activists have begun to request.
“With all due respect to all of Netanyahu’s accomplishments, enough already!” wrote the head of the Likud’s Rehovot branch, Uri Tzubeiri. “If Bibi would have agreed to stand aside, we could have had a right-wing government with [Gideon] Sa’ar, [Naftali] Bennett, [Bezalel] Smotrich and the haredim.”
Secretariat member Natan Engelsman wrote: “After failing again to form a right-wing government, the time has come for Netanyahu to take responsibility and return the keys.” The Likud needed “a courageous new leader,” he said.
Since speaking out against Netanyahu, Engelsman said he had been condemned by the prime minister’s supporters. But he said he was unfazed.
“I am the real Likud, and they are held captive by Bibi-ism,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time before they understand that.”
Last Thursday, Netanyahu told the Likud faction: “I want you to relax. I’m not going anywhere. I am staying here, fighting together with you until we win.”