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Sep. 23, 2005
PM sees vote against him as ’tantamount to impeachment’
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon considers a loss of support within the Likud Central Committee over the impending leadership race as being "tantamount to political impeachment," one of Sharon’s top political aides told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
It is unlikely that Sharon will remain in the Likud if he loses its support this Monday, said the aide, Eyal Arad, and if he does leave he may create a new party.
Such an eventuality was not Sharon’s first choice but neither was it out of the question, Arad continued.
"It’s logical to assume that if he is thrown out he will stay out," said Arad.
Having successfully survived the loss of his coalition, created a new one, carried out the evacuation of 25 settlements and wooed the international community, Sharon is in danger on Monday of losing the support of his party and thus his place as its leader.
Technically, the 3,000 central committee members are simply voting on whether to hold primary elections for the party leadership in November, as requested by MK Binyamin Netanyahu, or in April, as desired by Sharon.
But the vote is seen as a contest between Sharon and his rival Netanyahu, a former prime minister who recently quit the government and is seeking to replace Sharon as head of the party well in advance of general elections, which are to be held no later than November 2006. This view was confirmed by Likud MK Michael Eitan, who said the only way to see the upcoming vote was as a fight between Sharon and Netanyahu.
Speaking in favor of Sharon on Thursday night, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz accused Netanyahu of alienating thousands of Likud voters due to the economic policies he pursued.
"If your struggle succeeds on September 26, you will be remembered in the history of the Likud as the person who destroyed the party," he said.
Polls have shown popular support for Sharon, with a Yediot Aharonot poll published on Thursday predicting that a potential "Sharon party" would garner 36 mandates compared to 14 that Netanyahu would bring in as head of the Likud.
But polls within the central committee disagree, and a new poll in Friday’s Yediot is likely to show that Netanyahu will win in Monday’s vote by 3 percent. The gap, while narrow, is seen by Sharon’s aides as a sign that support for Netanyahu is waning, because earlier polls showed Sharon losing to Netanyahu by more than 10.
A spokesman for Netanyahu welcomed the later poll and dismissed the earlier one as a virtual poll about a virtual party. He warned that if Sharon were to push out on his own, the new party would fizzle the way other such endeavors had.
Arad said he believed it was "touch and go‘ for both sides, but that the polls still reflected ’a world of difference from where we were four weeks ago," adding that he hoped that the momentum that appeared to be growing in Sharon’s favor would be enough to carry the day.
"The mood I sense from party activists is that no one wants elections now," said Arad.
Should Sharon succeed, Arad said, he has every intention of remaining in the Likud and leading it. Netanyahu has been claiming that Sharon intended to form a new party whether he won or lost Monday’s vote.
"It’s not good strategy to create a new party," said Arad.
Still, he warned, if the committee goes against Sharon, "he will have to reconsider his position." Knesset speaker MK Reuven Rivlin told the Post that the Likud would have to make some tough choices in the coming days.
Until Sharon spoke at the UN earlier this month, Rivlin said, it was unclear whether the disengagement was a first or last step for the prime minister.
His words showed that he was determined to push forward with concessions.
"They [Likud members] are very much afraid," he said.
He said it was not the party that has left Sharon, but the prime minister who had already left the party.
Rivlin, who has yet to decide how he is going to vote, said, "It is very difficult to look at Sharon as the leader of the Likud." Netanyahu denied Wednesday that he was trying to oust Sharon and insisted that his fight for an early leadership election was a battle for the Likud Party’s values.
"Come on Monday to vote — not for me and not against Sharon — but to determine if we are Likud or Meretz,‘ he told supporters at a meeting in Kiryat Malachi. ’We had a path; we had a philosophy that has been destroyed; we have to decide whom we represent," he said.
But a number of Likud politicians said they were willing to wait for a later date for the primary only if Sharon would swear to remain in the party at all costs.
On Wednesday, however, Sharon refused to acquiesce to a challenge by Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz and MK Gideon Sa’ar that he make such a pledge.
In speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Katz and Sa’ar said they had no problem promising to stay in the party, and neither should the prime minister.
Katz said that 70 to 80 percent did not want early elections because they believed it threatened the party, but that they also didn t want a leader who wouldn’t promise to remain within the party.
Of the reports of Sharon s alleged attempts to form a new party, Katz said, it is often the case that "what looks like a cat, is a cat." Their challenge to Sharon followed statements made by Education Minister Limor Livnat on Tuesday and Wednesday night that Likud politicians should pledge to remain in the party.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom echoed Livnat’s message of party loyalty when he insisted Wednesday that he intended to stay in the Likud even if Sharon did not win in the primary elections.
News
- Parties look to gain from Likud turmoil Sep. 29, 2005
- PM aide: If Likud doesn't back Sharon, he'll leave Sep. 28, 2005
- Sharon: I will guide Likud Sep. 27, 2005
- Sharon prevails in Likud showdown Sept. 26, 2005
- Sharon's planned speech to the Likud central committee Sept. 26, 2005
- Netanyahu's speech to the Likud central committee Sept. 26, 2005
- Cliffhanger Likud meeting opens Sunday Sept. 25, 2005
- PM sees vote against him as 'tantamount to impeachment' Sept. 23, 2005
- Sharon assures supporters he'll win Sept. 21, 2005
- PM: I've lost Likud majority Sept. 19, 2005
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