Netanyahu’s Survival Is Tested as Likud Party Holds Leadership Vote

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

December 26, 2019 at 09:12

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, center, still commands a strong and emotional following within his party. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, center, still commands a strong and emotional following within his party.Credit...Pool phot

Israel’s prime minister faces a challenge from within his own party. A rival, Gideon Saar, says that only he can return Likud to power in a general election in March.

JERUSALEM — With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future on the line — and possibly Israel’s — members of his conservative Likud party voted Thursday on whether to stick with their scandal-scarred leader or replace him ahead of a general election in March.

Mr. Netanyahu, who was indicted last month on corruption charges including bribery, was widely expected to prevail over his challenger, Gideon Saar, a seasoned but less popular party veteran. Even so, this is the most serious challenge to the prime minister’s party leadership since 2005, and fears of a low turnout on a day of bad weather made the outcome harder to predict.

The result of the vote, expected to be known early Friday, will determine whether Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, will lead Likud into the country’s third parliamentary election in less than a year. The previous two general elections, in April and September, ended inconclusively and left the deeply divided nation in a political deadlock.

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