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Benjamin Netanyahu announcing his candidacy (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 30, 2005 |
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The battle for leadership of Israel's ruling Likud Party heated up Tuesday, as Benjamin Netanyahu announced his candidacy for party chairman and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced his rival as unfit for leadership. Netanyahu pushed for a quick primary that could lead to Sharon's ouster from the party, and he is likely to get one with before the end of November.
"Our country is facing difficult challenges regarding security, the war on corruption and the mending of the rift within the nation. I believe that only one party can face these challenges -- Likud," he said. "The man who received our votes to lead the party in the Likud spirit has turned his back on us. Sharon has abandoned the Likud's principles and chose the way of the Left. He is threatening to destroy with his own two hands the home he helped build. This is why we must all protect the home, because we have no other.
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Sharon gave and gave and gave, the Palestinians received and received and received. But what did we receive? Nothing. On the contrary, Gaza is turning into a base for Hamas and al-Qaeda.
Benjamin Netanyahu
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The Likud is in need of a leader that would lead it to victory and lead the country in the spirit of our principles," Netanyahu said. "We must return to the Likud the principles that Sharon trampled: Uncompromising security, in the sole hands of the IDF, and no concessions without compensation."
"And I am adding a third principle, a referendum before any decision involving land," he said.
Netanyahu's press conference was briefly halted after a fight broke out between a heckler and security guards.
Netanyahu offered scathing criticism of Sharon and the "disengagement" plan: "Sharon is following a platform whereby Israel withdraws without getting anything in return, a platform that involves the uprooting of settlements and turning thousands of Jews into refugees in their own country."
He added, "Sharon gave and gave and gave, the Palestinians received and received and received. But what did we receive? Nothing. On the contrary, Gaza is turning into a base for Hamas and al-Qaeda."
"I have proven my ability to conduct stern negotiations with the Palestinians. I established the principle of reciprocity. If they give -- they?ll get; they won't give -- they won?t get."
Of his service as finance minister, Netanyahu said, "two-and-a-half years ago Sharon called on me to save the economy; a lot of courage was needed to introduce reforms and stand up to the big corporations. We put the market back on the track of growth and prosperity."
The bitter fighting was set off by vengeful party hard-liners trying to punish Sharon for ignoring their opposition to the Gaza pullout. The battle could split Likud and remove it from power, senior party officials warned. "I've never before seen collective suicide committed with such joy," said Cabinet minister Meir Shetreet, a Sharon ally.
Political wrangling among Israelis and Palestinians could freeze Mideast peacemaking for months, despite the boost it received from the Gaza pullout. Israel's general election is set for November 2006, but is expected to be held earlier because Sharon's coalition government is increasingly unstable. Palestinian parliament elections are set for January, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is not expected to take tough decisions, including on a possible crackdown on popular militant groups, before the vote.
The Sharon-Netanyahu battle burst into the open after a party tribunal ruled Monday that the 3,000-member Likud Central Committee, stacked with Netanyahu supporters, could set a primary date in a Sept. 25 vote.
Netanyahu, a former premier who is leading in internal Likud polls, would benefit from a quick leadership contest. Sharon needs more time to try to stage a comeback in the party he helped found three decades ago. Sharon is expected to leave Likud before the primary if poll results don't improve.
In such a scenario, Sharon would likely form a new party with Likud moderates and compete in general elections. With the Gaza pullout completed, Sharon has broad voter appeal, while a more hawkish Netanyahu-led Likud is expected to lose support.
Currently, Likud is the largest party, with 40 seats in the 120-member parliament.
The battle within Likud dominated the front pages of Israel's newspapers Tuesday. "The coup has begun," read the headline in the Maariv daily, next to pictures of Sharon and Netanyahu. "Sharon: Netanyahu is plagued by hatred," read the Yediot Ahronot headline.
Netanyahu, who quit as Sharon's finance minister three weeks ago in protest over the Gaza withdrawal, was expected to launch his campaign at a news conference Tuesday. Another candidate for Likud leader is hard-liner Uzi Landau, who led the anti-pullout campaign until Netanyahu left the government.
Landau has accused Sharon of deceiving Likud voters because he did not run on a Gaza withdrawal platform when he was elected to a second term in March 2003; Sharon only formulated the pullout plan at the end of 2003.
"He (Sharon) should be interested, more than anyone else, to return to the voter, and say, friends, either you support me or you don't support me," Landau told Israel's Army Radio.
Sharon, meanwhile, delivered a blistering attack on Netanyahu, who earned a reputation for political recklessness and hasty decision-making during his 1996-99 term as prime minister.
"Netanyahu is a man who gets stressed. In any situation of pressure he gets stressed immediately," Sharon told Israel TV's Channel 10 on Monday. "He panics and loses control. I've seen him like that more than once, many times."
"To run this country, to deal with the most complex and difficult problems, you need judgment and nerves of steel. He (Netanyahu) has neither of these two things," Sharon added.
Israeli analysts said Likud hard-liners were so bent on revenge that they didn't seem to care that by moving up the primary and forcing Sharon out, they could also bring down the party.
"Sharon's problem is that the Likud has stopped acting rationally, and now they are all acting from their gut," political commentator Ben Caspit told Army Radio. "They are setting Rome on fire, and Netanyahu is playing the fiddle."
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