Former Otzma Yehudit MK to run in Likud primary after Netanyahu opens door

Former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen announced on Wednesday that he will run in next week’s Likud primary, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a shorter cooling-off period than usually required, paving the way for him to compete.

Netanyahu welcomed the move, praising the ultranationalist as a “warrior” in a joint video address announcing his candidacy. “Almog, I am glad today to officially welcome you into the ranks of Likud,” he said, confirming that he had waived tenure requirements to allow the newly minted Likud member to run in the August 17 primary.

“This is a warrior, a man of the Negev who chewed my ear off to bring an airport to the Negev. Well done! And he was with us on the decisive vote to pass the budget. I’m not forgetting that. I thank you,” Netanyahu added, referring to Cohen’s push to approve a new airport in the south and his willingness to buck party discipline, as a member of Otzma Yehudit, to help pass the 2025 budget.

Thanking Netanyahu, Cohen called for the “victory of the camp under your leadership.”

The former police officer and restaurateur was elected to the Knesset on Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit slate in 2022. He quickly developed a reputation as a firebrand, calling for opposition leaders to “be put in handcuffs,” screaming at the families of hostages held in Gaza and accusing them of “representing Hamas,” and likening Arab party MKs to sheep, which drew a reprimand from the Knesset Ethics Committee.

He was also the subject of a criminal probe, since closed, into allegations that he used violence against a civilian during his service in the Israel Police over a decade ago.

Beyond clashing with ideological opponents in the Knesset, Cohen also quarreled with his colleagues, repeatedly voting with the coalition despite Otzma Yehudit’s decision to oppose the 2025 state budget — an approach that led the party to slap him with several sanctions, including exclusion from faction meetings and removal from the party’s internal WhatsApp groups.

And as Netanyahu alluded to on Wednesday, his abstention during a committee vote on an important budget-related bill in January 2025 paved the way for the bill to go to the plenum for its second and third readings.

Cohen was also the sole Otzma Yehudit lawmaker not to temporarily resign from the coalition over the cabinet’s approval of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip that month, prompting party leader Ben Gvir to say that “his place is in Likud and I wish him great success.”

Cohen was later appointed by Netanyahu to a deputy ministerial position and resigned as a lawmaker under the so-called Norwegian law, which allows cabinet members and deputy ministers to relinquish their Knesset seats while holding on to their ministerial posts.

In a statement, Cohen said that he was “grateful for the privilege of continuing to serve you, the citizens of Israel, and to run in the Likud primaries. I am certain that just as I have been by your side through good and bad, you will be by my side. I thank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his trust.”

אני מודה על הזכות להמשיך ולשרת אתכם, אזרחי ישראל, ולהתמודד בפריימריז בליכוד. אני בטוח כי כפי שהייתי לצידכם בטוב וברע- כך אתם תהיו לצידי.
אני מודה לראש הממשלה, בנימין נתניהו, על האמון והדרך המשותפת.

בשם ה׳ נעשה ונצליח???????????????? pic.twitter.com/huJsaLBnHB

— אלמוג כהן Almog cohen (@almog_cohen08) August 12, 2026

By running in the Likud primary, Cohen is entering a crowded field and competing against incumbent MKs, many of whom are not expected to return in the upcoming Knesset.

The Likud secretariat on Tuesday approved Netanyahu’s decision to grant guaranteed spots on the party’s electoral list to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Defense Minister Israel Katz ahead of the primary.

Katz and Sa’ar will be given reserved placements separate from the eight slots set aside for candidates of Netanyahu’s choosing, the Likud announcement said, meaning that in total, 10 of the first 29 spaces on the ruling party’s slate will go to hand-picked candidates rather than be filled in a primary vote by the party’s roughly 140,000 members.

The premier’s push for reserved slots was based on concerns that the primary could elevate candidates who are highly popular among the Likud base — including MK Tally Gotliv and ministers Shlomo Karhi and May Golan — but who internal party polling suggests are less appealing to moderate right-wing and swing voters whose support could prove decisive in the upcoming national election.

The competition for the remaining spots on the list became even tighter on Tuesday, when the Tel Aviv District Court upheld a ruling by the party’s internal tribunal canceling a Likud Central Committee vote that allows sitting and former Knesset members, ministers and deputy ministers to compete for slots reserved for regional districts in the upcoming primaries.

For decades, Likud’s reserved spots for districts were only available for freshman MKs, acting as a diversifying tool that gives new faces a chance to make it into the Knesset. Netanyahu heavily campaigned for the Likud Central Committee to approve a change that would allow current and former lawmakers, ministers, and deputy ministers to vie for those spots. Public opinion polls have consistently shown Likud getting around 22-24 seats in the October 27 election, significantly down from its current 32.

Incumbent lawmakers and ministers would be expected to compete for a limited number of available and realistic spots, leaving many out.

‘Time to take action for unity’

Meanwhile, Oren Smadja, a former Olympic bronze medalist in judo who went on to coach the Israeli national team, joined Likud breakaways Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein’s Unity party on Wednesday.

Smadja “represented the State of Israel with honor, and after being the coach of the Israeli national team, now joins the excellent team of the Unity party, which is the only party that is both a true right-wing party and will lead to true [Haredi] conscription and the establishment of a broad Zionist government,” Erdan said.

The veteran athlete and coach, who lost his son fighting in Gaza, said the highs and lows of his life have convinced him that “there is one thing that is more important than any political dispute: unity.”

“All my life I have worn the Israeli flag on my [judo] outfit. I decided it was time to take action for unity. I received many offers from the political system, but I chose to join Gilad Erdan because I believe in him and the path he leads: a true and responsible right wing, which believes that everyone must serve the country and that this value is the basis for unity among us,” he declared.

Smadja is the second candidate to join Erdan and Edelstein since the announcement of their new party last week, following former Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch.

Unity is one of the parties of the so-called “Third Bloc” pushing for a broad Zionist unity government