Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is considering forming a new political party and running for prime minister, Yediot Aharonot columnist Nahum Barnea reported over the weekend.
Sources close to Huldai declined to confirm the report. He is facing increasing calls to enter national politics after 22 years as the mayor of Tel Aviv and earlier careers as an IAF combat pilot and high-school principal, the report said.
“He is the only senior politician who has not been damaged by the crises of the past year and is the only candidate who is able to present an alternative,” Barnea wrote.
Huldai has been a member of the Labor Party, which is supposed to have a leadership race next year according to party bylaws. But some observers believe he more likely would form his own party from scratch and build an attractive list of candidates to pose a threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Huldai should run with Labor, MK Merav Michaeli (Labor) told The Jerusalem Post.
“Every day I hear about people who have left the party,” she said. “That is what the current leadership’s move into this bad government has caused. Ron Huldai is one of the pillars of the party and an important leader. Any engagement of his in national leadership is a blessing. I believe the reconstruction of the center-left political camp should be built on the structure of Labor. I hope it will be possible and that we can do it with Huldai.”
Huldai will be 76 next month. Netanyahu turns 71 in three months. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, 56, would present the most serious threat to Netanyahu, according to some polls.