Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to move up the Knesset elections in a bid to replace Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh with a more "convenient" police chief in light of the criminal investigations against him, a senior Likud member has been claiming in recent weeks in private conversations.
According to the source, Netanyahu plans to prevent Alsheikh from landing a fourth year in office, unlike previous police commissioners.
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Netanyahu and Alsheikh. A Likud official says the prime minister has yet to give up on his mission to replace the police chief
(צילום: רויטרס, אלכס קולומויסקי)
The senior official said that was one of the reasons Netanyahu had tried to move up the elections at the end of the Knesset's winter session in March, adding that the prime minister had yet to give up on his mission.
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Will Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan be replaced with Miri Regev or Yariv Levin?
(צילום: אוהד צויגנברג)
"Netanyahu's goal in moving up the elections is replacing Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan with one of his two loyalists in the party: Miri Regev or Yariv Levin," the official added. "In such an event, he will be certain that he handed the ministry over to one of the people who would know how to show the police chief the way out, or at least avoid extending his term."
Erdan took to Twitter on Sunday to comment on the speculations concerning Alsheikh's fourth year in office. "I haven't been dealing with the length of the police commissioner's term, and I have no opinion on the matter yet," he wrote. "On the contrary, dealing with this issue is premature."