Likud votes on primaries, with PM’s leadership in balance

As the Likud party was set to vote Wednesday on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to bring its primaries forward, former Likud minister and current independent party leader Moshe Kahlon was reportedly meeting with the leaders of several parties to discuss cooperating against the premier in March’s general election.

A report in the Haaretz daily quoted political sources as saying Kahlon had recently spoken with Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) about the possibility of collaboration between their parties.

Kahlon denied the report, saying he was not considering running on a joint ticket with any other party.

The former minister has yet to announce the makeup of his new political party. Indeed, he has given very little information so far as to its platform and plans. He is widely seen as running on a social ticket, following up on his popular work to open up the mobile telecom industry to competition when he was communications minister starting in 2009.

Beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Likud party members headed to 10 polling stations across the country to decide whether to approve Netanyahu’s motion – ostensibly intended to clear the way for the chosen Likud head to begin preparations for the March 17 elections as soon as possible, but seen by many as an attempt to thwart a leadership bid by potential rival Gideon Sa’ar.

Likud primaries are currently scheduled for early January,

Meanwhile, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett has been considering joining his party with Likud if centrist and leftist parties win big in the polls, the NRG news site reported Tuesday night, quoting sources close to the economy minister.

A Channel 10 poll on Tuesday indicated Labor could become the Knesset’s largest party if it joins with Livni’s Hatnua and Shaul Mofaz’s Kadima party, winning 22 seats compared to Likud’s projected 20.

According to the NRG report, if such an eventuality occurs, Bennett and Netanyahu could merge their parties, potentially creating the largest faction in the new Knesset and leading President Reuven Rivlin to charge Netanyahu with forming a government, as opposed to Labor head Isaac Herzog.

The Channel 10 survey also saw 22 percent of respondents citing Herzog as their preferred prime minister, with Netanyahu just one point ahead at 23%. Previous polls have shown Netanyahu well clear of potential prime ministerial rivals.

However, the poll also offered respondents the choice of another Likud politician, former minister Gideon Sa’ar, for prime minister — which a Likud critic said distorted the result.

On Monday the Knesset voted in favor of a bill to dissolve the parliament, officially putting an end to the current government and paving the way for new elections in March.

The government, made up of Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, Hatnua, Yesh Atid and Jewish Home, was formed in March 2013 but eventually collapsed amid heated squabbling over legislation and accusations by Netanyahu, swiftly denied, that ministers Lapid and Livni had tried to oust him in a “putsch.”

With political maneuvering in full swing, reports of alliances, mergers, unions and unofficial agreements between Israel’s many political parties abound.

Over the weekend, a left-center bloc aiming to overthrow Netanyahu gained traction, with Lapid and the Labor Party’s Herzog butting heads over who would lead said bloc. Herzog asserted on Friday that he would be Israel’s next prime minister.

“It’s time to put egos away, and work together as a big bloc… with a big Labor Party,” Herzog said in the Knesset Monday. He predicted that Labor would emerge on top after the March 17 elections, and “we’ll lead the country to a better future.”

Hours earlier, Lapid declared, “Yesh Atid will lead the center bloc. We will connect with other parties to replace the current leadership and continue with full force, exactly from the place where we stopped. Everything is ready. Everything is already on the table. Everything can be restarted.”

Both Lapid and Herzog were courting Livni, with reports indicating that the former justice minister was more inclined to merge with Labor.