 |
 |
 |
|
|
MK Netanyahu (AP file photo)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 26, 2005 |
|
| |
Benjamin Netanyahu will soon announce that he intends to run against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in primary elections for the ruling Likud Party, a close supporter said Friday.
Netanyahu, a former prime minister, would beat Sharon in Likud primaries, 42 percent to 35 percent, according to a poll published Friday in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
But Sharon remains more popular with the general public, according to the poll. In national elections, Sharon, aligned with a new, centrist party, would beat Netanyahu 24 percent to 16 percent, the daily said.
Netanyahu will formally announce his candidacy next week, Michael Ratzon, a Likud lawmaker and Netanyahu supporter, told Army Radio.
Netanyahu resigned as finance minister earlier this month to protest Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and four communities in Samaria. He has been widely expected to challenge Sharon for the party leadership since stepping down.
Many voters in Likud, a party traditionally supportive of Israeli settlements, remain furious at Sharon, despite the quick and quiet Gaza withdrawal.
But most Israelis are in favor of further withdrawals from Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), according to the Yediot poll. The survey found that 54 percent of Israelis want more pullouts from the territory the Palestinians want for a future state, while 42 percent do not.
Netanyahu's popularity in the Likud has raised speculation that Sharon will leave the hawkish party and form a moderate movement with other veteran politicians.
Several Sharon advisers back such a move, Israeli media have reported. The Yediot poll showed that Sharon would bring almost one-third of Likud members with him.
Sharon advisers have told media that he could choose to establish a party with centrist politicians Shimon Peres and Joseph Lapid. But Peres said this week that he had no plans to leave the Labor Party, which he heads.
National elections are scheduled for October 2006, but are likely to be held earlier if Sharon is unable to keep his fragmented parliamentary coalition intact. A Labor lawmaker, Eitan Cabel, told Israel Radio Friday that the party would leave Sharon's coalition by November.
Peres said this week that Labor would not leave the government as long as it proceeded toward peace but that he did not oppose moving the elections up by a few months.
The Yediot poll questioned 501 people. It did not give a margin of error.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
