Likud approves PM’s call for early leadership primaries

The Likud party’s powerful central committee voted Tuesday to approve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for early leadership primaries, which he argued would allow the Likud to be “ready for every scenario,” including national elections.

The one-day ballot also saw the election of Welfare Minister Haim Katz as the new head of the central committee. Katz replaces Danny Danon, who left the post to become Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations earlier this year.

Of the 3,532 members of the committee, 2,891 — or 82 percent — cast their votes.

The Likud leadership vote will now be held on February 23, a move that the prime minister told senior Likud activists Sunday would stabilize the governing coalition.

Netanyahu, whose coalition has a razor-thin majority, took part in an emergency central committee meeting Monday in an effort to persuade activists to support his proposal to bring forward the party leadership vote. He canceled the weekly Knesset faction meeting in order to attend.

“Tomorrow a chairman of the Likud Central Committee will be elected and I wish good luck to all the contenders,” Netanyahu said in a statement Monday. “In addition it’s important to complete the elections for chairman of the Likud party and its nominee for the premiership in order to unite the movement and ensure that there is no division and partisanship,” the prime minister said.

“We want to be ready for every scenario,” he continued. “And if something happens — we do, after all, have a coalition of 61 [MKs] — and we find ourselves faced with elections, we’ll be ready.”

Opponents have argued that bringing forward the primaries instead of holding them closer in time to the next general elections may stymie attempts by potential competitors to run against the prime minister, thus securing Netanyahu’s position as the leading candidate.

A year ago, facing a shaky coalition, Netanyahu brought the leadership primaries forward; in that instance, the aim was to prevent rival Gideon Sa’ar from mounting a successful counterbid for the leadership. Sa’ar subsequently pulled out of the race.

On Thursday, the retired politician announced that he would not run for the next Likud primaries either. Taking to Twitter, Sa’ar called the snap primaries a piece of theater, and said he would not participate.

“I’m not in the habit of being a marionette. I wish Netanyahu success in running, as well as to all of the other actors in the play,” he wrote in answer to a journalist’s query.

Primaries, which are conducted by several Israeli political parties, enable party members — rather than internal committees — to elect a leader and the lists of candidates for general elections. In June, Netanyahu fought off a bid to have the power to choose candidates returned to the Likud Central Committee.

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.