Likud No. 2 calls for leadership vote if Netanyahu can’t form gov’t in current Knesset

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein calls for the opposition party to hold leadership primaries if its chief, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cannot form a government in the current Knesset if the current coalition collapses.

Edelstein, a former Knesset speaker and senior minister, announced last year that he would challenge Netanyahu to lead Likud.

“I usually don’t get into fights that I don’t think I can win,” Edelstein tells Channel 12 news.

He calls for the ruling minority government’s collapse and argues a new ruling coalition can be formed without going to new elections.

“If Netanyahu knows how to assemble a government in the current Knesset, I definitely won’t stand in his way because I said the State of Israel doesn’t need elections. If not, then hold a competition for leadership of the party,” he says.