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Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu smile for the cameras. (AP)
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Shalom and Netanyahu (AP)
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Moshe Feiglin
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| By israelinsider staff and partners December 20, 2005 |
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| Posters outside a Likud polling station. (AP) |
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Benjamin Netanyahu coasted to a comfortable victory in the Likud chairmanship race. With 98 percent of the vote counted, Netanyahu, a former prime minister, captured 44 percent of the vote, as against 32 percent for Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Netanyahu in his victory speech, said that "Tonight the Likud begins its way back to the leadership of the country." He denied the Likud was dead and vowed to lift it "higher, higher, higher."
Silvan Shalom finished a distant second place, and Moshe Feiglin in third, garnered a higher than expected 15 percent of the vote. Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz trailed in fourth place with 9 percent.
MK Yuval Steinitz, a Netanyahu supporter, was jubilant: "It is a wonderful night for the Likud and Netanyahu; after seven years he is returning to his natural place, and in several months he will return to his natural place as prime minister."
Minister Dani Naveh, another long-time Bibi ally, said that the Likud with Netanyahu is a center-right party, not a radical right wing party. According to Naveh, "The 'Feiglins' represent a marginal group in the Likud."
Education Minister Limor Livnat said Feiglin had come into the Likud ready to gain hostile control, adding "we must now act to extract Feiglin from the Likud."
Feiglin exulted at the exit poll: "The people of Israel received a great gift tonight -- a new option to lead it, an option of a Jewish leadership. When we first ran, we got only 4%. Now it's up to 15 and the next time we will double that rate." He added: "This is an excellent night for the nation of Israel. Today a new Jewish alternative has bloomed for the Israeli government."
Feiglin is expected to win for the first time a Knesset seat, and election results suggest that he may achieve a higher place in the Likud list than Ministers Naveh and Livnat, who long waffled on the issue of disengagement and remained in Sharon's government to the bitter end. Another turncoat Likud member, Meir Shitreet, who joined the renegade Kadima party, kvetched: " A Likud in which Feiglin can win 15 percent of the vote is not a Likud that I know," he said.
National Union Party Chairman Knesset Member Zvi Hendel was not impressed by the victory of the putative "hard-liner," noting that Benjamin Netanyahu "have proven a willingness to zigzag in the past in his loyalty to setting the Land of Israel."
He added: "All of the orange camp must rally around the National Union, because we are the only ones strong enough to make sure that Netanyahu and his party are loyal to the values of the entire nationalist camp."
Silvan Shalom's strategic adviser, Moshe Debi, complained bitterly about the low turnout and hoped the polls were wrong. "It is no secret that we are disappointed by the low voter turnout. We must remember that the anxiety generated by Sharon's hospitalization brought more voters to vote for Bibi. It's like the syndrome of the battered woman who returns to her abusive husband."
Turnout as low as 40% was reported in the elections, held in the shadow of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's sudden illness. A low turnout had been expected to help Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who enjoys the support of Sharon and is seen by many as the ailing PM's "stalking horse" and a comfortable ally with the new Kadima party. But in the end, the exit poll indicated that there was no cause for Bibi to worry.
A concerned Benyamin Netanyahu earlier urged his supporters to bring people to the polls, "even in a wheelbarrow." Netanyahu, who has enjoyed a clear lead in recent polls, fears that the low voting rate result in a run-off with his main rival, Silvan Shalom, who has been narrowing the gap. A low turnout may also favor the "dark horse" candidate Moshe Feiglin, who polls have indicated enjoys the support of highly motivated voters who are most likely to vote.
"We mustn't give up on a single vote," said Netanyahu. "Bring people over by taxis, get them in cars, even in wheelbarrows. Just get them, just bring them with a mighty hand and outstretched arm," a worried Netanyahu told his activists in Petah Tikva, waxing Biblical.
More than 128,000 Likud members were eligible to cast votes. Voting began at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) and ended at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), when exit poll results were announced.
Thumbnails of major players in Likud elections
The major players vying to succeed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as head of the Likud Party, and to rebuild a movement shattered by his departure:
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Served as prime minister between 1996 and 1999, and is the frontrunner in the four-way race. Netanyahu, 56, left Sharon's coalition government, where he served as finance minister, to protest this summer's Gaza Strip withdrawal, despite his own territorial pullbacks when premier. He now advocates a tough line against ceding more land.
SILVAN SHALOM: Currently foreign minister, the politically moderate Shalom, 47, is seen as the Likud hopeful most likely to enter into an alliance with Sharon's new party, Kadima, if it dominates March parliamentary elections as expected. Shalom, who has built up a large base of support in Israel's poorer south, has narrowed the gap with Netanyahu in recent polls, and would be expected to benefit from a large turnout.
MOSHE FEIGLIN: Feiglin, 43, burst on to Israel's political scene in 1995 when he founded the right-wing Zu Artzeinu (This is our Land) movement in 1995 to protest Israel's peace treaties with the Palestinians. The religiously observant Feiglin, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, takes a harsh line against giving up land Israel captured in the 1967 war, and advocates imposing Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. He seeks to lead a new "Jewish leadership" and to bring more Jewish values into Israeli policies.
YISRAEL KATZ: Trailing for behind in the polls is Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, 50, who stood in the vanguard of the Likud rebels who tried to block the Gaza pullout. He is not considered a serious candidate.
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