Report: Barkat alleged to have co-led Likud effort to replace Netanyahu after Oct. 7

By Stav Levaton

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11 August 2026, 9:53 pm

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Stav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right), and Economy Minister Nir Barkat in the Knesset on February 22, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Economy Minister Nir Barkat allegedly co-led a failed effort to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through a no-confidence vote immediately following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, Channel 12 news reports.

The network claims another co-leader of the push was Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who has now left the party to form a rival faction named “Unity.”

The report says Netanyahu now sees next week’s Likud primaries as an opportunity to settle scores and promote loyalists, with his insistence on securing the right to reserve as many candidates of his choosing at the top of the list — currently likely to be 10 in the top 29 — intended in part to weaken Barkat.