Premier will appear at Likud convention next month which will discuss annexation of Judea and Samaria, Temple Mount prayer rights.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has decided to attend a controversial Likud convention meeting next month, despite his opposition to right-wing proposals that are expected to pass at the event, sources close to him said Wednesday.
Netanyahu has tried to prevent a convention in his party on diplomatic issues from being held for years. But the meeting will be held December 18 with an agenda that is being approved by a panel headed by hawkish Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon.
The proposals set to come to a vote at the convention include annexing Judea and Samaria, guaranteeing the right to Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and preventing politicians who vote in the cabinet or Knesset against convention decisions from running again with the party.
Sources close to Netanyahu said he would not feel obligated to abide by every decision made by the convention. The sources said his legal advisers told him that for instance, he could bypass a decision to not merge with Yisrael Beytenu.
Channel 10 reported that Netanyahu told Likud ministers that if the bond with Yisrael Beytenu is broken, there would have to be a cabinet reshuffle and Likud ministers could lose their jobs. Modi’in Mayor Haim Bibas, a strong Netanyahu supporter, is pushing a proposal to facilitate the merger of the two parties.
“People think we have 31 seats but unless we have a merger, we will have only 20,” Bibas said.
“If the Likud wants to be a large party, we must be united.”
Bibas, who described himself as part of the “sane Likud,” cautioned Likud hawks not to go too far with their proposals that are aimed at tying Netanyahu’s hands on diplomatic issues.
“The prime minister needs to be enabled to lead so we won’t be a small niche party,” Bibas said.
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“There are people who don’t realize that if they continue this way we’ll have nothing left. We have a prime minister who heads the party but must also run the country. If he doesn’t get the freedom to run things the way he needs, the party will become an obstacle.”
Among the proposals aimed directly at weakening Netanyahu include: one that requires a special majority to win a third straight term as party chairman and one by MK Moshe Feiglin that would prevent a party leader from deciding the date of a leadership primary.
Feiglin slammed Netanyahu’s handling of the Iranian nuclear issue, saying that Israel’s strategy of calling it an international problem was proven wrong this past week when the P5+1 caved into Iran’s demands in Geneva.
He said Netanyahu’s red line before Israeli military action should have been when Iran’s leaders first called for Israel’s destruction.
He said he was glad that the prime minister declared that the P5+1 agreement did not obligate Israel but Feiglin expressed frustration that Netanyahu was sending more emissaries to Washington instead of saying that Israel sees only itself as the solution to the problem.
“I warned for years that passing responsibility for the problem to the US would lead to a nuclear Iran,” Feiglin said. “We must admit that this strategy failed. Had we asked the Americans about whether to attack the Iraqi and Syrian nuclear programs, Saddam Hussein would have had the bomb and Assad would have been on the way.”
Ted, you havn’t fixed it, comment 6 in moderation, something is obviously wrong.
That makes sense. enable the same guy who failed miserably in 2 out of 2 issues and will soon fail miserably at 3 out of 3 issues. Batting 0 for 2. this is a guy to disable not to enable. He appears to be unaccountable as no one is calling for him to step down or at least to get advice from his party. It is difficult to be such a failure and to have such poor judgment after having access to the most credible resources. Likudniks are following a falling star whose success like Livni, Sharon, Peres are based only on foreign support.
@ Laura:
Me too. If only Feiglin were PM!!!
I’m in total agreement with all of this.
@ NormanF:Bibi has neither soul nor spine. If Bibi were in Yonatan’s place at Entebbe, the terrorists would have been released and the hostages left at Entebbe. Shai Ben-Tekoa says that although his father Benzion Netanyahu was a PhD historian of the Spanish Inquisition (and Don Isaac Abravenel). His work has been much criticized as based on materialism and not religion as the prime motivator of the Spanish Inquisition against the Jews. Bibi follows his father, poo pooing even Jabotinsky’s Zionist Revisionism in this respect, and focusing on his father’s secular materialism -thus selling Israel for a pot of pottage to the highest bidder.
The right wing of Likud has about 15 seats (guestimate). There is very little difference that separates them from Bennett’s party which is currently polling at about 16 seats.They should combine to make the biggest party with 30 seats. If the balance of Likud went with Liberman’s party they would have only about 16 seats. Yesh atid is polling at about 13 seats only but Bibi could stay in power by turning to Shas and UTJ. In a new election which may have to wait 3 years, the combined party of hardliners would be the largest party and should get the call to form the next government. Roughly speaking. Now if Shas could join Bennett’s expanded party then that would cinch the deal. Lately Bennett has been making his religious and housing policies closer to Shas, perhaps with this in mind.
Netanyahu isn’t leading – he doesn’t have an ideology, let alone core beliefs.
What does the Prime Minister really stand for? No one can really say and neither his friends nor enemies know for sure. Nor does the media.
If he has problems with his party, maybe he can explain to them what makes his political direction different from that of the Labor Party.
The Likud needs a soul. The question is: does Netanyahu embody it? At any rate, we’ll find that out soon enough.