Hardline candidates may dent Netanyahu’s chances

Vita Bekker, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: December 10. 2008 11:23AM UAE / December 10. 2008 7:23AM GMT

Tel Aviv // Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to get no popularity boost from the parliamentary list chosen by his right-wing Likud party.

The results yesterday from an internal Likud vote on Monday showed that the candidate list picked to run alongside Mr Netanyahu in February’s elections – in which polls show the party ahead – consisted mainly of hard-line figures, dampening Mr Netanyahu’s hopes of attracting undecided centrist voters. Furthermore, should Mr Netanyahu become prime minister, those leading the list are likely to hamper any of his moves to advance talks with the Palestinians and Syrians.

Even worse for Mr Netanyahu, Moshe Feiglin – a far-right politician whom Mr Netanyahu wanted to block from entering parliament – won a high enough slot on the list to probably become a parliamentary member. Commentators said Mr Feiglin’s victory will be used as ammunition by the ruling centrist Kadima party, the Likud’s main rival ahead of the ballot, to dub the Likud as extremist right-wing.

“It was not a good day for Netanyahu,” said Tamir Shaefer, a professor in communications and political science at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

The right-wing leanings of the top figures on the list “will probably make Netanyahu’s life harder both now in the campaign and later on if and when he will become prime minister”.

Indeed, Mr Netanyahu had hoped to run alongside key moderates to help draw voters away from Kadima. Instead, the views of most of those in the top 30 spots – about the number of seats polls predict the Likud may win in the elections – reflect the hard-line foundation on which the Likud was founded in 1973. It was created with the merger of four fringe right-wing parties committed to “Eretz Israel”, the Hebrew biblical term for the territory that includes the current state of Israel as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas that Israel seized in 1967.

One example is Gilad Erdan, a 38-year-old trained lawyer ranked third on the Likud’s list. Mr Erdan was quoted by Israeli media as having once said “the Likud should settle in every corner of Judea and Samaria”. He referred to the biblical term for the West Bank, where half a million Jews live in settlements – including in East Jerusalem – that are considered illegal under international law. Mr Erdan, who had opposed Israel’s pullout of Jewish civilians and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, had described that withdrawal as “a crime on a national level”.

Other prominent figures at the top of the list include Benny Begin, son of Menachem Begin, the former prime minister, as well as Moshe Yaalon, a former army chief of staff. Mr Begin, 65, a geologist who had served in Israel’s parliament for 11 years, opposes making territorial concessions and recently told a right-wing Israeli paper there was “no chance to reach peace” with the Palestinians in the foreseeable future.

Mr Yaalon, 58, wrote in a book published this year that said no “true solution” is possible in the coming decades with the Palestinians because their leadership hopes for the destruction of Israel, and suggested in a recent interview with an Australian paper that Israel should consider assassinating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president.

“If Netanyahu wins and will want to advance the peace process, no one [from his party] will let him move forward,” political commentator Shalom Yerushalmi told Israel Radio. “The last time this happened in the Likud, it led to a split.” He referred to former Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, who quit the Likud along with several allies in 2005 after getting fed up with the confrontations with members of his party who had opposed his decision to carry out the Gaza withdrawal. The Likud suffered a blow from the split while Kadima, the new party created by Mr Sharon – who is today comatose after suffering a stroke in early 2006 – swept to victory in the 2006 elections.

But while the Likud vote did not produce Mr Netanyahu’s dream team, his biggest disappointment was reserved for Mr Feiglin, who was ranked 20th on the list and stands a reasonable chance of entering the parliament. Mr Feiglin, who analysts said is supported by as much as a tenth of the Likud’s 100,000 registered members, has said there is “no such thing as ‘Palestinians’,” and has suggested that Israel should encourage the “Arabs” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to move to Europe or Canada.

Indeed, Mr Netanyahu has good reason for concern about Mr Feiglin. On Tuesday, politicians from rival parties pounced on the Likud leader, saying Mr Feiglin’s placement on the list showed the party’s extremist leanings. Eitan Cabel of the centrist Labor party, referring to Mr Netanyahu’s nickname of Bibi, said “the Bibi-Feiglin list symbolises an outrageous hopelessness and leaves no opening for a real peace process.”

vbekker@thenational.ae