Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to decide this week how Likud will choose its candidates for the next election, but party officials say he has already made clear what he wants: either cancel the primaries and let a party-appointed committee build the list, or keep the primaries while giving him guaranteed spots for his own picks.
“Either a selection committee or reserved spots,” Netanyahu said in talks with Likud officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The demand marks the latest stage in an internal fight over how much control Netanyahu will have over Likud’s next candidate list. The party is currently preparing for primaries, but Netanyahu has been considering a move that would replace the vote with a committee chosen by party leadership.
Likud officials believe Netanyahu wants to cancel the primaries so he can shape the list himself and save the party millions of shekels that would otherwise be spent on holding the vote. In closed conversations, Netanyahu said he is seeking an agreed decision rather than imposing one by force. He said any move would be coordinated with senior Likud figures, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Haim Katz, who heads Likud’s central committee.
The dispute has already triggered legal and political fallout inside the party. Likud’s longtime legal adviser, attorney Avi Halevy, resigned after Netanyahu criticized him for representing the party in the primaries dispute without the party chairman’s approval.
Likud’s internal auditor, Shai Galili, issued a report saying Netanyahu’s effort to cancel the primaries is illegal. A source close to Netanyahu said the prime minister has a contrary legal opinion allowing him to do so.
Opposition inside Likud is also growing. MK David Bitan, one of the party’s most influential lawmakers, petitioned the party’s internal court Sunday against Netanyahu in an effort to block a party-appointed selection committee and require primaries under Likud’s constitution.
“You cannot deny tens of thousands of party members their right to choose their representatives,” Bitan said.
He called the effort a “constitutional ambush” that violates the right of Likud members to vote and run for office, as well as previous rulings by the party’s internal court.
“Likud was and will remain a democratic movement,” Bitan said. “You cannot change the rules of the game in the middle of the game, one month before the primaries. I believe in Likud members and in their right to decide, not in an appointed committee.”
In an interview with ynet, Bitan warned that “without primaries, Likud will be erased.”
He argued that Netanyahu himself rose in Likud because of the party’s democratic system, saying senior Likud figures did not want him when he returned from his post at the United Nations.
“Netanyahu fell in love with the idea of a selection committee,” Bitan said. “I understand him. Everyone wants to build a list however they want. But that is not Likud’s system.”
“If there had not been a democratic system, he would not have entered Likud either,” Bitan added. “You cannot benefit from the system and then reject it when it no longer suits you.”
On the possibility of giving Netanyahu guaranteed spots for his own candidates, Bitan said: “There is no problem with him having reserved spots. The question is how many and in which positions.”