Likud official says party will head to opposition if it loses

If Likud loses the current elections it will serve Israel from the opposition, Eli Hazan, Likud’s foreign affairs director, tells The Times of Israel.

“I don’t see any scenario in which we could join a Gantz government,” he says, referring to Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz. Even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were to quit politics, it was exceedingly unlikely that the party would join the government as a junior partner of Gantz, Hazan surmises.

“Whenever Likud lost an election, we always went into the opposition,” he says.

Speaking to The Times of Israel at Tel Aviv’s Kvutzat Shlomo hall, where Likud will mark the election’s end later tonight, Hazan says he agrees with Netanyahu that fewer right-wing voters have made their ways to the polls than in 2015.

They may say they're losing the elections, but at the venue of @Likud_Party's election event in Tel Aviv, they're prepared for a victory party tonight pic.twitter.com/JY5Xugt0Um

— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) April 9, 2019

“I just got a phone call from our guy in Sderot. He told me, Eli, it’s dead here. There are no voters.”

With less than two hours before the polls close, the situation was dire, he adds, but at the same time stresses that Likud is not giving up the fight. “We’re very worried, but we’re working hard. It would be irresponsible not to try to win.”

— Raphael Ahren