Netanyahu moves to thwart proposal that could deny him fourth term

Likud to vote on changes to party constitution to raise the bar for the party leadership from a simple majority of votes to 60%

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to convene on Monday the Constitutional Committee of his ruling Likud Party in an effort to defeat a proposal that could make it harder for him to win a future fourth term as party leader.

The proposal was advanced by Netanyahu’s opponents in the party, according to the Haaretz daily, including Likud Central Committee chairman and MK Danny Danon. It raises the bar for winning a fourth term as party leader from a simple plurality to 60 percent of all votes cast.

Netanyahu is in a hurry to get the measure voted down by the Constitution Committee for a simple reason – he has two weeks left to parcel out cabinet and Knesset committee appointments to the Likud’s top leadership. For the moment, the Likud’s top leadership is hoping to win his favor and is less likely to mobilize their party activists against him in party institutions.

After the coalition is formed – the deadline is May 6 – the situation could be reversed, with many disappointed Likud lawmakers and powerbrokers eager to show their influence in the party by exacting revenge on the prime minister.

Netanyahu’s efforts to defeat the proposal comes “in order not to close off any possible avenues for another term [as party leader], and in order to prevent the humiliation, since it’s clear to everyone that this is a confidence vote in him,” a Likud party source close to Netanyahu told Haaretz.

Netanyahu won 75% of the Likud vote in the 2014 primaries, and 77% in 2012.

Given his stature as a newly reelected prime minister and the very real dependence on his goodwill of many Constitution Committee members who will be voting, the measure is unlikely to be approved on Monday. But that doesn’t mean the Constitution Committee is guaranteed to defeat the measure outright. It may vote to send it back to the nearly 4,000-member Central Committee where it was first conceived, and where Netanyahu will have a more complex fight on his hands to defeat it.

Danon announced this week that he would convene the Central Committee next week to vote on several changes to the party’s internal primary system.