When pressed on when such a transition might occur, Prime Minister Netanyahu declined to provide a timeline.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in a bombshell interview on Thursday that he is preparing a potential successor to replace him as leader of the Likud party — and presumably as prime minister of Israel.

The revelation came during an interview with i24 News after journalist Sharon Gal, who is considered friendly toward Netanyahu, asked the prime minister whether he had a candidate in mind whom he would feel comfortable “handing over the keys to the country,” meaning someone he believed could responsibly succeed him after he eventually leaves political life.

“Yes, I think there is” a candidate for the job, Netanyahu said.

Gal appeared surprised by the response and followed up by asking whether Netanyahu was actively mentoring the individual and holding discussions with the person about a possible transition of power.

The journalist referred to the potential successor using the masculine form in Hebrew, suggesting that the candidate was a man.

Netanyahu immediately pushed back on that assumption.

“How do you know [we’re speaking about] him and not her? You’re narrowing down” the options, he replied.

The comment appeared to indicate that Netanyahu may be considering a female successor.

Netanyahu reiterated that he was indeed working with or considering a potential successor, saying that “the answer is yes” when asked whether he was preparing someone to eventually take over his leadership role.

However, when pressed on when such a transition might occur, Netanyahu declined to provide a timeline.

He did not identify the potential successor by name, leaving speculation over whether he is referring to a current Likud minister, an emerging political figure, or someone outside the party’s current leadership structure.

Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for nearly two decades, serving as prime minister for a total of 18 years. His first term lasted from 1996 to 1999, before he returned to power in 2009 and remained in office until June 2021.

After a brief period in opposition while Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers, Netanyahu returned to office in December 2022.

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If the ruling party goes into the Opposition next week, at least three men will contend to replace Netanyahu as Likud chairman, reports indicate.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Talk of a leadership primary in the Likud is fast gaining steam now that it looks likelier than ever that the ruling party is headed for the Opposition.

If Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid manages to get a majority of the Knesset behind a unity government, at least three top Likud figures have indicated that they will challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the chairmanship of the party after he has sat in the seat for the last 12 years.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told his confidants that he will probably jump into the leadership race, Zman Yisrael reported Monday. As the No. 2 man in the party, the former longtime Speaker of the Knesset said he believes he has a good chance to win.

Finance Minister Yisrael Katz told party activists Sunday that he had proposed a snap primary following Netanyahu’s latest failure to form a government, according to which the winner would serve as prime minister for a year before stepping aside again for Netanyahu. This would have opened the door to New Hope’s Gidon Sa’ar joining a stable, Likud-led government, as his party is ideologically right-wing but refuses to sit with the current prime minister.

Katz said that he thought he could win that primary, considering his seniority in the party (No. 3) and his past success in heading the transportation, intelligence and foreign ministries, along with his current stint as finance minister. When Netanyahu refused, however, he went back into line, at least temporarily.

Katz also castigated a fellow MK whose actions indicate that he’s thinking big – former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

Barkat is organizing a conference in the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center for Likud activists in some two weeks’ time, titled “Presenting My Vision” for Israel. He has also had staffers calling Likud central committee members and asking them what they think of him and inviting them to share their concerns and priorities for the country.

Katz slammed Barkat Friday for his ambitious undertaking while the political ground has not yet settled, saying, “Never in the history of the Likud has there been such a subversive action against an incumbent prime minister.”

This was not an acceptable way of running for leadership, he added, since the Likud has “accepted rules” as to how and when to challenge an incumbent – which Katz clearly indicated he will do when the time is right.

Barkat jumped into the No. 9 spot in the Likud after leaving office at the end of 2018. He is now in seventh place. Despite his high ranking, he has served only as a backbencher for the last two and a half years. This has been duly noted by the pundits, who attribute his continual lack of a cabinet seat to the fact that he is considered a great threat by more senior contenders for party head.

This view is backed by an April poll for Radio 103 FM, where he came out far ahead of his colleagues. While 23% of Likud voters chose Barkat to theoretically replace Netanyahu, his closest contender, Gilad Erdan, who has held several ministerial posts and is currently Israel’s ambassador to the UN and the US, received only 13% of the vote. Edelstein and Katz came in at seven percent and six percent, respectively.

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The Likud primaries will include the entire party list if the court decision holds.

By World Israel News Staff

The Likud court said that all Knesset candidates on the party list must run in new primaries, in a ruling issued on Thursday.

The court’s tribunal, led by former MK and attorney Michael Kleiner, said that the move by the Likud Central Committee to cancel primaries for the party list was invalid at it was passed by an insufficient number of Likud members required to change the party’s bylaws.

According to Arutz7, there is still a chance for appeal. Kleiner said the decision was a dramatic one for Likud candidates, according to Kan Reshet Bet.

Originally, Likud primaries, set for Dec. 26, were meant to determine only the party’s head. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been challenged by Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar. Sa’ar is seen as having little chance to unseat Netanyahu, but a strong showing, which has been pegged at 30 percent of the vote or better, could put him in pole position as the future leader of Likud.

Assuming the Likud court decision holds, all of the Likud candidates must compete.

Freezing the primaries for the party list was seen as beneficial to Netanyahu, who observers said hoped to avoid defections by protecting everyone’s seat.

Sa’ar said of the news, “We have no problem with the decision. We welcome it. We will not appeal the decision.”

However, Haim Katz, chairman of the Likud Central Committee, said, “The Knesset members were elected and served in a transitional government not an active one, we have to allow them to realize their service and and to serve the citizens of Israel. I hope that in a larger debate wisdom will conquer and the judges will understand the costs involved in Likud primaries and to the state and will stop elections for the [entire] list.”

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The head of the Likud’s internal court, former MK Michael Kleiner, charges, as cited by The Jerusalem Post, that “this group has acted in an ugly way as a fifth column within the party.”

By World Israel News Staff 

Some 100 Likud members could be expelled from the party the day before the primary for the chairmanship takes place on December 26, reports The Jerusalem Post.

“There will be a hearing on Tuesday to hear their appeal as a bloc, which could render the individual hearings unnecessary,” according to political correspondent Gil Hoffman.

He writes that “Boston-born Aliza Landes joined the Likud Party two years ago, paid her membership dues, and supported and voted for the party, but…received a letter on Sunday telling her that she was about to be expelled from the party pending her attending a hearing within two weeks. The letter was dated December 11, two weeks and one day short of the December 26 Likud leadership race.”

According to the paper’s exposé, “Landes’ loyalty to Likud was questioned by the party administration because she registered her membership through the website of the New Likudniks, a group opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership that is seen as relatively dovish and against anti-political corruption.”

She insists that she joined the party through the group only because “their website simplified the process,” the Post reports.

On the other hand, she counters that “asking me who I am going to vote for is ludicrous, adding that “things like this make me feel incredibly alienated.”

Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar is challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the election later this month.

Referring to the New Likudniks, the head of the Likud’s internal court, former MK Michael Kleiner, charges, as cited by the political correspondent, that “this group has acted in an ugly way as a fifth column within the party. They told people whom they registered that they don’t have to vote Likud, and they can be leftists who work against the party. Sharing a post that you cannot vote for Likud because it’s corrupt is definitely grounds for being kicked out.”

According to the newspaper report, Kleiner promised that anyone who appeals the expulsion will be allowed to vote, even if they cannot attend a hearing.

“They are trying to kick out whoever they can in order to influence the election,” argues New Likudniks leader Nir Hershman, as reported by the Post. “They are monitoring people like the Stasi [East German secret police]. The Likud needs to be purified,” he told the paper’s political correspondent.

Hershman said his group registered nearly 10,000 people, and charges that “the fight against them had crossed red lines,” writes Hoffman.

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