PM urges early primaries to ready Likud for elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon made a plea for early leadership primaries, so that the Likud “can be ready for every scenario,” including elections.

Netanyahu took part in an emergency Likud Central Committee meeting in an effort to persuade activists to support his proposal to bring forward the party leadership primary. He canceled the weekly Knesset faction meeting in order to attend.

“Tomorrow a chairman of the Likud Central Committee will be elected and I wish good luck to all the contenders, and in addition it’s important to complete the elections for chairman of the Likud party and its nominee for the premiership in order to unite the movement and ensure that there is no division and partisanship,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“[Yair] Lapid has no primaries, [Avigdor] Liberman has none, United Torah Judaism has no primaries, Aryeh Deri has no primaries, and Moshe Kahlon has no primaries,” the prime minister said, listing the leaders of other Knesset parties. “There aren’t many parties left other than Likud,” he added, not naming the Zionist Union and Meretz parties, which do have internal elections.

“We want to be ready for every scenario,” the prime minister continued. “And if something happens — we do, after all, have a coalition of 61 [MKs] — and we find ourselves faced with elections, we’ll be ready.”

The meeting was called after an internal Likud body ruled that a vote on the proposal, which was scheduled for Tuesday, could not take place until the committee members had been given the opportunity to debate the matter. Rejecting petitions to cancel the vote altogether, the court said that if a debate did take place, the vote could go ahead as scheduled.

Netanyahu hopes the powerful Central Committee will support holding the primaries on February 23, and has argued that bringing the election forward would strengthen the Likud and the coalition it heads.

The prime minister told senior Likud activists Sunday that the move would stabilize the governing coalition, according to the Israel Hayom daily.

In what was described as an open and informal get-together at the Rishon Lezion home of businessman and close associate Sefi Sasson, Netanyahu said, “Although the coalition is very stable, nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. We have to be prepared for every scenario.

“Likud leads the State of Israel according to our values, and we have to continue to do so. We are leading the country in a very responsible and decisive way. I’m asking you to help me to lead,” Netanyahu reportedly told the gathering.

But opponents have argued that bringing forward the primaries instead of holding them closer in time to the next general elections may stymie attempts by potential competitors to run against the prime minister, thus securing Netanyahu’s position as the leading candidate.

A year ago, facing a shaky coalition, Netanyahu brought the leadership primaries forward; in that instance, the aim was to prevent rival Gideon Sa’ar from mounting a successful counterbid for the leadership. Sa’ar subsequently pulled out of the race. On Thursday, the retired politician announced that he would not run for the next Likud primaries either.

On Twitter, Sa’ar called the snap primaries a piece of theater, and said he would not participate.

“I’m not in the habit of being a marionette. I wish Netanyahu success in running, as well as to all of the other actors in the play,” he wrote in answer to a journalist’s query.

After the 2007 and 2011 elections, Netanyahu also announced early party elections.

Primaries, which are conducted by several Israeli political parties, enable party members — rather than internal committees — to elect a leader and the lists of candidates for general elections. In June, Netanyahu fought off a bid to have the power to choose candidates returned to the Likud Central Committee.

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.