Likud MK Eliyahu Revivo says he won’t run in party primary

By Sam Sokol 13 August 2026, 1:45 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

File: MK Eliyahu Revivo speaks during a Finance committee meeting, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on March 3, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Likud MK Eliyahu Revivo announces that he will not run in next week’s party primary, insisting that the “the current election system and reserved spots make it extremely difficult for MKs to secure a realistic spot on the slate once again.”

“While I could have embarked on a long and expensive political and legal battle over my personal spot, I chose not to do so,” says Revivo, who was elected to the Knesset in 2022 on the 19th spot on the Likud list, representing the Shfela region. “I wish success to all Likud members who succeed in getting elected, and especially to the new generation that will take it upon itself to continue leading the movement and the country.”

Last month, Likud’s roughly 4,500-member Central Committee approved a proposal to significantly expand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s control over the party’s Knesset slate, granting him eight reserved slots in the top 29 places on the list ahead of the October 27 election, giving the premier unprecedented influence over more than a third of the party’s realistic slate.

The party subsequently increased the number of reserved seats granted Netanyahu when the Likud secretariat approved his decision to grant guaranteed spots on the party’s electoral list to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Likud Central Committee chair Haim Katz. While Haim Katz and Gideon Sa’ar’s reserved spots come out of Netanyahu’s quota, Israel Katz’s effectively increases the number of slots to be appointed by Netanyahu to nine.

The premier’s push for reserved slots was in part based on concerns that primaries 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.