Likud Pledges Not to Replace Bibi after September Elections

By Staff, Agencies

All 40 members listed on Likud's party list signed Sunday a declaration pledging allegiance to “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the sole leader of the party and nominee to head the government.

The party's former chairman David Bitan led the initiative after Yisrael Beiteinu’s party leader Avigdor Lieberman demanded that Likud members nominate a replacement for Netanyahu should he once again fail to form a coalition government following the September election. 

Lieberman elaborated that if Netanyahu and the centrist Blue & White party refuse to form a broad unity government, he would “approach Likud lawmakers and tell them to bring someone that will agree to such a government."

The so-called kingmaker of this year’s elections – who earned the label given the divide between the center-left and the right-wing blocs – even named Parliament Speaker Yuli Edelstein as a possible candidate to replace rival Netanyahu.

Relations between Lieberman and Netanyahu have soured since the former decided to quit the latter’s government over disagreement on various issues, including on the Gaza Strip and army service for religious, leading to the snap elections in April.

"My heart goes out to him. I feel sorry for him having to lie that I belong to the left wing. It seems time, stress and tension have taken their toll on him," Lieberman said of the “Israeli” entity’s longest-serving premier, calling for a televised “face-off” with him to set the record straight on his “everyday lies.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the New Right and revamped Union of Right-Wing Parties [URWP] Ayelet Shaked reportedly told the entity’s digital news outlet Ynet that she would recommend Netanyahu to lead the government should his Likud win, though she criticized his "reckless" release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and his notorious speech at Bar Ilan University in support of a Palestinian state.

Shaked reiterated her aspiration to lead the “Israeli” entity, presenting the choice to right-wing voters as between a Netanyahu-Gantz coalition or a Netanyahu-Shaked government.