New Likud in the making? Sharon
Photo: Reuters
Next party leader? Netanyahu
Photo: Yisrael Hadari
Also in the running: Landau
Photo: Tal Shahar
Sharon not leaving Likud
Sources close to prime minister say Sharon not planning to create 'new Likud' , despite rumors, after newspaper poll showed former Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his biggest rival, as the favorite Likud candidate; Netanyahu, a former prime minister, has been itching for a comeback in recent years and is widely expected to run against Sharon in party elections
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not leave the Likud Party despite rumors that have signaled his desire to form an "alternative framework" with his supporters, his sources said on Wednesday, as former Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gained a strong lead against the prime minister in a newspaper poll.
"The idea of leaving the Likud party was not considered nor brought before the prime minister," an source close to Sharon said. "Whenever the topic was brought to discussion in the past, it was shot down, so it's difficult to see such a scenario occur."
He made his comment after the left-wing Haaretz newspaper published a poll on Tuesday that showed Likud hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu leading Sharon as the favorable candidate for the party for the first time since the prime minister was first elected in 2001.
Netanyahu had resigned from his post as finance minister on Sunday in protest of Sharon’s plan to pull all settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, which is scheduled to begin on Aug. 17.
The survey showed that 35 percent of Likud members preferred Netanyahu as their candidate for the 2006 prime ministerial elections, while support for Sharon fell to 29.1 percent. Until now, Sharon has consistently showed a strong lead over Netanyahu, his main rival.
Veteran party member and vocal opponent of the pullout plan, Uzi Landau garnered 17.3 percent of Likud support in the poll. He announced his intention to run as Likud party head on Tuesday.
Sources close Sharon said the polls represent an accurate picture of current state of the party, but said many Likud members are "confused" because of the disengagement.
"The party is half the size it was in 2003," said one party source. "Apparently, the folks who left were our supporters."
Prime minister’s popularity waning
Sharon’s popularity among Likud supporters has decreased since he first announced his plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of the 120 in the West Bank – the first Israeli withdrawal from land Palestinians want for a state.
The U.S.-backed plan also calls to strengthen existing large settlement blocs in the West Bank, but hardliners say any pullout from the territories would harm Israeli security and reward Palestinian terrorism.
Nationalist Jews, most of them rightists, claim the West Bank and Gaza as their biblical birthright and have said Sharon is betraying the Jewish people by handing land to the Palestinians.
Netanyahu supported the pullout plan in the Knesset but opposed it several times in cabinet votes that had been touted as having a wide majority in advance. He has said the withdrawal should not be unilateral and was likely to lead to an escalation in Palestinian terror in Gaza.
Netanyahu was elected prime minister in 1996 and vowed to bring a “secure peace” with the Palestinians. During his reign, he negotiated with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over handing over some 13 percent of West Bank land to the Palestinian Authority.
He later lost a re-election to the Labor party’s Ehud Barak, and has since been widely expected to run again for prime minister. He flew to the United States earlier in the week to collect funds from Jewish donors.
