Netanyahu, Edelstein. (photo credit: Courtesy)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw his support behind two specific candidates in Tuesday’s Likud primary: Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and the premier’s former chief of staff David Sharan, a suspect in Case 3000, the submarines affair.
Netanyahu does not plan to release a list of recommended candidates, he said Sunday, confirming The Jerusalem Post’s reporting in response to an article in Sunday’s Yisrael Hayom which claimed his list includes MK Amir Ohana – best known for leading the special committee to legislate the Nation-State Law – Culture Minister Miri Regev, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and Water and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.
“My recommendations list for the primary includes all current Likud MKs,” Netanyahu said. “They are all worthy…I trust Likud members that they will choose the most appropriate people out of this excellent selection.”
However, when asked, Netanyahu’s spokesman said the prime minister supports Edelstein and Sharan, but that there was no one else whose name the Likud leader would specify.
Netanyahu said Edelstein is “a worthy Knesset Speaker,” and that Sharan is “the best candidate in the Tel Aviv district.”
Sharan is a suspect in Case 3000, known as the “Submarines Affair,” involving allegations that Israeli officials accepted bribes so that Israel would buy specific German submarines. Police recommended that Sharan be indicted on bribery and fraud charges.
The Tel Aviv spot is in the 29th place on the Likud list, giving the candidates a realistic shot to get into the Knesset.
Former Netanyahu aide Natan Eshel, who remains close with the prime minister, has made calls to top Likud activists in Tel Aviv encouraging them to vote for Sharan, Channel 12 reported.
Eshel was forced to resign from his position as bureau chief of the Prime Minister’s Office in 2012 and is forbidden from working in government jobs in the future, after he was caught sexually harassing another Netanyahu aide, including taking photos up her skirt.
Meanwhile the New Likudniks, a group seeking to moderate the party, released its list of recommended candidates, which include Edelstein, Katz, Steinitz, MKs Yehudah Glick, Sharren Haskel and Nurit Koren, as well as ministers Gila Gamliel and Tzachi Hanegbi. They also recommend former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat and lobbyist and longtime Likud activist Keren Barak.
The group estimates that they have 7,000 eligible voting Likud members, but others in the party have said the real number is a fraction of that figure.
The list also includes Nir Hirshman, one of the New Likudnik’s leaders, who had previously been banned from running by the Likud’s Elections Committee, claiming that he was undermining the party. However, the Likud’s court overturned the decision on Friday. Five other New Likudniks candidates are still not allowed to run.
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