Netanyahu cancels appearance at Likud convention
Party heads provide official reason, stating that two substantive items were removed from the agenda
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his appearance at a Likud convention on Thursday, at a time when his influence over his right-wing party appears to be waning.
The official reason given for skipping the event, where the prime minister was scheduled to be keynote speaker, was the removal of two substantive items from the agenda.
The party’s internal court had postponed a vote to grant the Likud Central Committee the power to amend the party’s constitution by a simple majority vote. The court had also postponed electing heads for the various Likud institutions, preferring to wait until after municipal elections in October.
“Netanyahu only wanted to speak on an occasion at which important decisions are made, in which he could sanction or influence the decision. The court’s decision deprived the evening of any substance so that there was no reason for him to show up,” Likud officials said.
The prime minister announced that he would postpone his speech until the next party convention, scheduled for November.
Netanyahu suffered a painful but predictable blow on June 30, when two hardline politicians from Likud’s younger guard were elected to key positions in the party’s internal mechanism.
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin won in the race for, respectively, chair of the Likud’s Central Committee and chair of its Bureau.
The 3,600-member Central Committee has the power to change the Likud’s constitution. It used to choose the party’s Knesset list, but that power was taken away in an effort to clean up the Central Committee’s image after a series of corruption and bribery scandals broke out among its members.
The Bureau is charged with deciding the party’s policy positions on issues facing the country, from economics to the Palestinians, but Likud prime ministers in the past have proved able to circumvent those positions.
Eighty percent of the Central Committee members turned out to vote at ballot boxes placed throughout the country, signaling that despite its steadily declining authority over the years, the body has maintained its vibrancy.
In the vote for chair of the Likud’s Secretariat, the incumbent, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, beat out his challenger, MK Miri Regev, despite the fact that Regev enjoyed the support of the party’s top chieftains, Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Communications Minister Gilad Erdan and Energy Minister Silvan Shalom.
The Secretariat controls the party’s operations and financing.
The ascension of Danon and Elkin, who are perceived as being to the right of the prime minister on the Palestinian issue, to key positions in the Likud underlines Netanyahu’s receding power over the party and its delegates.
Elie Leshem contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.