Prime Minister Netanyahu
Photo: AFP
Likud officials: If indicted, Netanyahu will have to resign
'There will be no scenario in which Netanyahu is leading the country and the Likud with an indictment hanging over his head,' says one Likud official, while PM's ally Bitan warns: 'We'll settle the score with ministers who didn't defend Netanyahu in the primaries.'
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former chief of staff Ari Harow
became a state witness
against him, some Likud officials clarified in private conversations over the weekend they would not continue to support the prime minister if he is indicted.
"If an indictment is filed against Netanyahu, we won't allow him to stay," one Likud official said. "There will be no scenario in which he is leading the country and the Likud with an indictment hanging over his head. He could bring down the Likud as well as himself."
Another Likud official said party members have been discussing the possibility of forming an alternative government should Netanyahu resign or be forced out, similar to when Ehud Olmert resigned from the premiership even before an indictment was filed against him.
Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: AFP)
Most of Likud's senior minister have been keeping mum about the investigations against the prime minister.
"There's great embarrassment. The most complicated situation Netanyahu is facing is that he is left with hardly any close associates, except for (wife) Sara and (son) Yair," one party official said. "However, his status in the Likud party is strong and most of the registered voters still support him."
A source close to Netanyahu said the three Likud officials who were "enlisted" to defend the prime minister in the media are Coalition Chairman MK David Bitan, MK David Amsalem and MK Nava Boker.
Over the weekend, Bitan attacked the ministers who failed to come out in Netanyahu's defense, telling Channel 2 News, "There are ministers who only care about replacing Netanyahu. We'll settle the score with them in the primaries. The registered voters remember."
MK Avi Dichter was the one Likud official to publicly call for Netanyahu's resignation if an indictment is filed against him, saying in a radio interview last week, "A prime minister or defense minister who are indicted—the high road says they must resign their post, unless there's a particular reason not to. I hope things don't come to this."
