From Bloomberg:
Benjamin Netanyahu, the former finance minister who resigned to protest Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip, said today he plans to run against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and replace him as leader of the ruling Likud party.Netanyahu's announcement came a day after the Likud set a two- day meeting of its central committee for Sept. 25 to vote on a date for party primaries. National elections are scheduled for November 2006. They may be held earlier if the Likud decides to hold its leadership race as soon as this November.
``The Likud and the state of Israel need a leader that will stop giving terror a hand, stop the widening corruption, and heal the rift and gap in the people,'' Netanyahu said at a press conference in Tel Aviv. ``I believe I can do that. Therefore, I am announcing my candidacy for head of Likud and prime minister.''...
Netanyahu, 55, would win 47 percent of the party vote if Likud primaries were held today, compared with 30.5 percent for the 77-year-old Sharon, said a survey published on Aug. 24 in the daily Ha'aretz that didn't say how many were questioned or give a margin of error.
``It is almost certain that Sharon will lose the vote,'' said Sam Lehman-Wilzig, head of the political science department at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv. ``It would take close to a miracle for him to win.''...
Netanyahu, who was elected after a wave of suicide attacks, has been accused by architects of the 1993 Oslo peace accords of failing to continue the process. ``Oslo was an illusion of peace under the shadow of terror,'' Netanyahu said. ``I stopped the crazy race of handing of the land of Israel to the Palestinians.''...
Bibi is a phony.
Having been PM once already, Zionists remember how Netanyahu gave away Hevron to the Palestinians despite running as an uncompromising Likud nationalist. He also coddled Arafat with public handshakes and allowed the despicable Oslo process to continue under his watch.
As Sharon's finance minister, he five times voted in favor of the Gaza expulsion, only to resign at the last minutes before the withdrawal began in an act so transparently political he was mocked by both Left and Right.
Of course, Sharon is even more duplicitous and corrupt than Netanyahu. Therefore, when running side by side, Bibi easily crushes the seditious Sharon in a voting decision most consider as choosing between the lesser of the two evils.
Uzi Landau, a powerful anti-expulsion Likud MK, is a serious threat to both Sharon and Bibi because of his popularity within the nationalist wing of the party. It is a reasonable deduction that if Landau scuttles Bibi he will win the Likud nomination.
Sharon will likely become a third party candidate comprising mostly of Likud doves and Labor centrists.
However, Landau's resources are much smaller than either Sharon or Netanyahu, so his will be an uphill slog to the top. The same could be said for Moshe Feiglin of the Religious Zionist wing of Likud, who is also hoping to gain the Likud nomination. His chances are the slimest, however, as his base is not as powerful of a force in the Likud Party.
For what it's worth, I don't trust Likud at all anymore. Beginning with Menachem Begin's Sinai concession to Egypt, Bibi's concession of Hevron, and Sharon's Gaza capitulation, Likud's track record of hollow promises and islamic appeasement is horrendous.
Labor, of course, is no better than the PA, so they are not an option at all.
I submit that a unified National Zionist party under the leadership of Benny Elon is the only trustworthy option left for Zionists who are sick of Israel being given away inch by inch, Jew by Jew, until nothing is left.
Unfortunately, the Likud machine is so monstrous that the odds of an alternative Nationalist party breaking through is rather slim, though not impossible anymore. If ever it might happen, these elections would be the right time for a breakthrough.
-MZ
Madzionist, it would almost be possible to create an entire political party made up of people forced out of the Sharon government for disagreeing with his Gaza withdrawal plan:
housing minister Effie Eitam
deputy minister in the prime minister's office
Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Tourism Minister Benny Elon
Interior Minister Yishai
Health Minister Nissim Dahan
Jerusalem Minister Eli Suissa
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Shlomo Benizri
National Security Council director, Major General (res.) Giora Eiland
Minister of Diaspora and Jerusalem Affairs Natan Sharansky
chief of staff Moshe Yaalon
And of course Finance Minister Bibi Netanyahu
I must admit Israeli politics baffle me. Sharon runs on a platform opposed to withdrawal, wins the election, implements his opponents withdrawal plan, and the people still support him. Maybe not as strongly as before, but still... Meanwhile Elon, Lieberman et al are treated by the Israeli electorate as rightwing fanatics. I would think that trying to maintain your nations' territorial security would be fairly mainstream.
Oops, I forgot to type Yitzhak Levy's name at the second line.
In these sweepstakes, and as a relative stranger to Israeli politics, would still go for Uzi Landau.
He talks the talk convincingly, but then, can he deliver ?
As Israel fares, so fares the West.
As goes the "Little Satan" so goes his larger bro.
Netanyoyo?
Just a different corrupt criminal Israeli politician.
He had his chance before and folded.