Oren Hazan: Likud is preparing for the day after Netanyahu

Likud MK Oren Hazan said on Thursday that some members of his party have started making preparations for the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ends his tenure.

Amid ongoing investigations into Netanyahu, involving allegations of bribery, Hazan told Army Radio that Likud MKs are considering various scenarios in case Netanyahu no longer leads the party and the country.

The newly appointed deputy coalition chairman explained that “there are more than a few people who are already forming factions and turning to activists in the field saying, ‘Listen, I’m also going to be running for the head of the Likud party in the very near future,'” he said, “and it pains me.”

It’s hard for a prime minister to run the country while under investigation, he lamented.

“As far as the investigation goes, I will quote the prime minister from 2008; ‘Under these conditions it is very difficult to run a state,’ perhaps impossible,” added Hazan. Netanyahu’s 2008 quote related to the then-under investigation prime minister Ehud Olmert, who subsequently resigned, was convicted of financial wrongdoing and is currently in jail.

But Hazan pledged his full support to the prime minister, and said he was convinced that the investigations would amount to nothing.

“I believe that there will be nothing [found in the probes],” he said. “There is also the moral, sociopolitical aspect. Ultimately, there is only one thing that decides [who governs the country] and that is the citizens of Israel.”

One police investigation reportedly revolves around gifts the Netanyahus received from Israeli movie producer Arnon Milchan and other businessmen, including hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of cigars for the prime minister and pricey bottles of champagne for Sara Netanyahu.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been questioned by police twice over that case, as well as over a second affair into an alleged quid pro quo deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes, whereby the latter’s newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, would take a more favorable stance toward the prime minister in exchange for the advancement of a bill that would force free daily Israel Hayom, seen as a pro-Netanyahu rival to Yedioth, to contract or disband.

The prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer has insisted Netanyahu has done nothing illegal.

The investigations have cast a pall over Netanyahu’s term, with some saying an indictment in either of the cases could force him from power.

On Wednesday night, Channel 10 quoted an unnamed Likud minister saying the new details in both investigations “are a game-changer.”

“You can smell it in the air that the era of Netanyahu is coming to an end. We need to prepare for the day after,” the unnamed minister was quoted as saying.