The Likud party, from the "top of the pyramid down to the last MKs," bears "heavy responsibility" for the party's poor performance in the polls, and must make a collective decision on how to improve the situation, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein said during an interview on Channel 12 on Thursday evening.
Edelstein is one of the Likud members who is considered a possible successor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his comment seemed to be a call on the party to choose a new leader.
The Likud currently has 32 seats in Israel's Knesset, but it has received between 16-18 seats in nearly every poll since the Hamas massacre on October 7.
Edelstein: Now is not the time for elections in Israel
Edelstein stressed that he believed that now was not the time for an election, but his comment regarding the Likud as a party likely indicated a preference for a process called “constructive no-confidence,” in which a new government may form based on the current Knesset makeup.Such a move would require a majority of 61 MKs. The National Unity Party and the opposition parties Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu, and Labor, which add up to 46 MKs, have said they would support a move to replace Netanyahu with a different member of the Likud. This requires an additional 15 MKs from the coalition, presumably from the Likud itself, hence Edelstein’s call on the party to make a collective decision.
Other than Edelstein, possible candidates in the Likud to replace Netanyahu are Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Economy Minister Nir Barkat, and Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz.Edelstein’s comment came a day after a political mini-drama on Wednesday, which began when National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to quit the government if it decided to go forward with what he called a “reckless” deal to free the hostages, which, according to reports, could include a lengthy ceasefire in Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
Yair Lapid could join Netanyahu's emergency government
Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said his party would serve as a “safety net” to ensure that a hostage deal went through. Lapid clarified later that this could even mean joining the government instead of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party.On Wednesday afternoon, KAN reported that a specific deal had been offered to Yesh Atid that included receiving the Justice Ministry instead of the Likud’s Yariv Levin. However, Likud, Yesh Atid, and Levin all denied the report.Asked in his interview about the option to include Yesh Atid in the coalition, Edelstein said that what mattered to him from the moment the war broke out was to ensure a broad government, but he did not say whether he preferred Yesh Atid or the far-right parties.In a press conference on Monday, Lapid said in response to a reporter’s question that he would support any move to remove Netanyahu but then listed three potential replacements, of which Edelstein was the only one from the Likud. The other two were National Unity leaders Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot.