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Sunday, June 8, 2025
National Unity to hold primaries in coming months
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
Days ahead of a preliminary vote on a measure to dissolve the Knesset, Benny Gantz’s National Unity party announces that it will hold primaries in the coming months, in an apparent move to bolster public support ahead of elections.
In a statement, the party says that an outline presented to lawmakers on Sunday calls for National Unity to “open its ranks to public participation” in the coming months and that the “party assembly will be renewed and significantly enlarged.”
As part of this process, “elections for the party leadership will be held” and “members of the party’s audit committee and other internal institutions will be reappointed,” the statement continues, adding that the initiative will be headed by a “diverse” team.
An Israeli Democracy Institute poll released in February showed that National Unity had experienced a clear downward trend over the course of the past year, going from a 70% repeat voter share in April to 34% in December.
A Channel 12 survey aired earlier this year found mounting support for party number two MK Gadi Eisenkot to replace Gantz at the head of National Unity. The poll found that following former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s return to politics, the party would receive several more seats with Eisenkot in charge than with Gantz.
In March, the Haaretz daily reported that Eisenkot was dissatisfied with Gantz’s reluctance to honor a promise to hold leadership primaries within National Unity ahead of the next elections and that relations had soured between the two.
A recent Channel 13 poll showed National Unity getting 9 seats if elections were held today.
The Times of Israel Community.