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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 12, 2006 |
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After a day of infighting and discord, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu appeared delighted by the results of the primary, which produced a list of generally youth and pragmatic hawks, many of whom are similar in outlook to him.
The top slots were reserved for Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who spent the day in a cold war over the party leader's demand that Ministers submit their letters of resignation today rather than Sunday. Shalom agreed to do so only on Friday.
The next slots were chosen as follows: Moshe Kahlon, Gilad Erdan, Gideon Sa'ar, Michael Eitan, Reuven Rivlin, Dan Naveh, Yuval Steinitz.
The rest of the top slots were filled, in order, by Limor Livnat, Natan Sharanksy, Yisrael Katz, Haim Katz, Uzi Landau, Yuli Edelstein, Daniel Ben-Lulu, Leah Nass, Nomi Blumenthal, Ehud Yatom, Michael Ratzon.
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in an upbeat speech after the results were announced, said "there's no democracy in Kadima (Sharon's party), but we have it. We were always a central movement in the country."
Referring to Kahlon, Netanyahu said: "Here's the kid from a family of nine people who became deputy Knesset speaker and finished first in the primaries tonight."
"This is what the Likud symbolizes, this is the place where everyone has an opportunity," Netanyahu said. "Moshe Kahlon knows what social sensitivity means. He knows economics, he knows how to combine the two, and he is the man who brings the nation together. I saw him doing this many times at the Knesset. Mazal tov."
More than the 3,012-member central committee came out to vote on Thursday, despite a thunderstorm that drenched the candidates, who stood outside the building where the voting was held, shaking hands with potential voters.
Earlier in the day, the embattled Likud Party seemed in disarray Thursday after senior party officials accused Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to ambush them just as the movement held its primaries.
The dispute came as polls for the March 28 elections showed that Likud will lose more than half its support from the last vote. The hawkish party is still reeling after Ariel Sharon left to form the centrist Kadima Party. Kadima continues to have the strongest showing in the polls even though Sharon lies in a coma after suffering a massive stroke last week.
Netanyahu and his party rival, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, were guaranteed the first and second spots respectively on the party list for the election, but their allies were vying for the remaining slots in Thursday's primaries.
Voting was to end at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) and results were expected about a half hour later.
Netanyahu, hoping to kick off Likud's campaign against Kadima, asked the four Likud Cabinet ministers to resign from the government, party officials said.
The demand angered the ministers since it came three days earlier than the agreed-upon date for the resignations, just as they were trying to maintain their stature for the primaries, officials said.
"Likud ministers are not the leader's employees, so no one is giving orders to anyone else," Shalom adviser Alon Roi told Israel Radio.
Danny Naveh, who was forced to resign his post as health minister, said the demand was coupled with a threat that Netanyahu supporters would act in the primaries to remove those who did not fall in line with his wishes.
"The threat was that they will distribute among their supporters 'assassination lists' against ministers in the party," Naveh said. "If there will be an attempt to take out ministers ... this will be a great blow, maybe even a terminal one that the Likud can't recover from ahead of elections."
In the end, three ministers submitted their resignation letters to Netanyahu instead of to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and suggested he turn them in Sunday. Netanyahu transferred the letters to Olmert's office later Thursday and they were slated to take effect Sunday, Israeli media reported.
A spokesman for Olmert's office did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
Shalom, the lone holdout, said he would only hand in his letter at a Cabinet meeting Sunday, media reported.
"Shalom is staging a mini rebellion against Netanyahu," political analyst Hanan Crystal told Israel Radio. "For Netanyahu to throw this at him creates once again a great conflict. Their facade of partnership is very thin."
Shalom refused Netanyahu's request that he join the party leader and the former ministers -- Naveh, Limor Livnat and Yisrael Katz -- in walking together through the crowd at the primaries to demonstrate unity, Channel Two TV reported.
The AP contributed to this report.
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