Report: Freshman Likud MK Bardugo helped shape Netanyahu’s attacks on Arab parties

New Likud MK Jacob Bardugo, a longtime confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has expanded his influence since joining the party, becoming a central voice in the premier’s political consultations and urging him to take a more aggressive approach to challenging the election results, Haaretz reports.

Bardugo, a former Channel 14 commentator who received a reserved spot at No. 11 on the Likud slate, now attends Netanyahu’s political consultations and visits the Prime Minister’s Office almost daily, often without an appointment, according to the report.

Haaretz says Bardugo pressed Netanyahu to go all-in on claims that the election had been stolen by the Arab parties, and proposed Likud-backed demonstrations calling for the vote to be annulled. One attendee at a meeting during election week describes Bardugo as being in a “frenzy” as Netanyahu and his advisers debated whether to launch such a campaign.

“He wanted to run a Trump campaign,” the source says, referring to the election-fraud claims US President Donald Trump made after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.

Bardugo’s influence was also evident, Haaretz reports, in Netanyahu’s speech to lawmakers on Tuesday, after the new Knesset was sworn in. The address included inflammatory remarks against Arab lawmakers and differed sharply from the shorter draft prepared by Netanyahu and his advisers.

Sources in Netanyahu’s office tell Haaretz that Bardugo and Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, entered the caretaker prime minister’s room before he gave the altered speech. Sara also reportedly attends between a third and half of the meetings of Netanyahu’s political consultation group, the report says.