Recordings from a closed meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud activists from the party’s Central Committee were released by Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) on Friday, and in them Netanyahu can be heard blaming the left with a concerted effort to oust him.
“There is a clear and apparent attempt here whose goal is to bring down the Likud rule and to put in its place a rule of the left,” Netanyahu is heard saying. “That’s the goal, and there are many partners in it, many political parties and many sources in the media.”
Netanyahu’s closed comments were an explicit and expanded form of a complaint he made during the meeting Thursday with Likud activists in the party’s Tel Aviv headquarters, when he charged the left with running a campaign against him.
“Who will lead the country? The leftist leaders, who are multiplying, or a leadership under me? We know the answer,” Netanyahu said. “The left has united us.”
Netanyahu commented on the vote made Wednesday to advance party primaries as Netanyahu requested, in what was viewed as an attempt to block former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar from challenging him that apparently worked.
“Likud members have understood what the citizens have been seeing in the last few days – a huge and almost unprecedented public campaign is being waged against me, which supports and advances any politician in any party who opposes a Likud government under me,” said Netanyahu.
Hatnua chairperson Tzipi Livni, who recently merged with Labor to run on a joint list, responded to Netanyahu’s comments on Twitter, writing that he “is s-c-a-r-e-d,” after polls show the new Labor party would outpace Likud by roughly two mandates.
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