(AFP).With a panoply of candidates to choose from, Israel’s right-wing Likud party will vote today for a list to run alongside Benjamin Netanyahu in February elections when it is poised to sweep to victory.
Former army chief of staff Moshe Yaalon, a throng of former military and police top brass, high-profile politicians, a top comedian and a basketball icon are all vying for a place in the Likud election line-up.
The list includes the son of former prime minister Menachem Begin, Benny, and the grandson of the founder of the right-wing Zionist movement Zeev Jabotinsky, who has the same name.
Nearly 100,000 Likud members will be asked to choose from more than 250 names, while Netanyahu — a former prime minister — has already been elected to head the party.
“The Likud elections are crucial because the team the Likud members pick will most likely be at the helm of the state after the elections,” political analyst Raanan Gissin said.
Recent polls have shown that the hawkish party, which now has only 12 seats in the 120-member parliament, may win as many as 34 on February 10, becoming the largest party and placing Netanyahu on course to become premier again.
“There is a great feeling in the party ahead of the general elections. We couldn’t have had a better choice of candidates,” his spokeswoman Dina Libster said.
But some of the high-profile candidates may prove to be an impediment to Netanyahu’s ability to rule if elected prime minister.
“Netanyahu is recruiting many stars and that may prove very significant in the elections,” said Gideon Doron, a political science professor at Tel Aviv university.
“But people such as Yaalon, Begin and Jabotinsky have an extreme-right ideology and may reject compromises. This may create friction and trouble when Netanyahu will come under pressure by the US or Europe to push this or that peace initiative.”
Likud’s dramatic rise in popularity is due both to its candidate line-up and to the diplomatic and economic challenges facing Israel, Gissin said.
The party is seen to owe much of its popularity to declining support for the ruling centrist Kadima, tarnished by corruption scandals involving outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government’s failures in the 2006 Lebanon war.
The failure to curb rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the fear of a new confrontation with the Shia Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and Iran’s nuclear drive have further boosted Likud’s popularity.
Netanyahu rejects the current US-backed Middle East peace talks and has put forward his own peace plan calling for the development of the Palestinian economy before any talks on creating a Palestinian state.
Israel has also been affected by the global economic crisis, and this has bolstered Netanyahu’s candidacy since the former premier and finance minister enjoys broad acknowledgment as a financial expert.
“If Likud does not drag itself to an internal argument and if Netanyahu does not make any major mistakes, they will win the general elections by default,” Gissin said. - AFP
