Senior Likud party officials tell Haaretz, polls will be taken this week to
determine whether Lieberman will remain at the forefront of the campaign
or be kept in the background.
"If the status quo of 39 Knesset seats in the polls holds up, we can
assume that the investment in merging with Lieberman has paid off," said
a senior Likud official. "If we see that we're losing Knesset seats,
then [campaign strategist] Arthur Finkelstein will keep him out of the
public eye."
Lieberman or no Lieberman, the Likud official believes the merger with Yisrael Beiteinu was a good move for Netanyahu.
"The joining of Yisrael Beiteinu to the Likud produced some significant
assets for Netanyahu," he said. "It added ridiculous sums of money to
our campaign, while in the center bloc that is competing with us the
parties are divided and poorly funded; it also gave Netanyahu a lot of
'yes-men' on the list who won't freak out on him in the Knesset after
the election. From that perspective it would be better for Bibi if
Lieberman is convicted, because it would leave him with a very
comfortable list in the next Knesset."
