TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rallied members of his Likud party to lend him their support in a primary election, touting his security credentials and high profile on the world stage as he attempts to chase off the first serious internal challenge to his leadership and extend his decadelong grip on power.
Since its inception in the 1970s, the party has had just four leaders. None have been voted out by party members before.
But this time, former interior and education minister Gideon Saar, a rising star in the Likud, hopes to convince the party faithful that new leadership is needed to win national elections in March after two previous votes failed to provide Mr. Netanyahu with the numbers he needed to form a new government.
Facing corruption charges and, in some quarters, rising consternation over his dependence on religious parties for his support, Mr. Netanyahu has campaigned the length and breadth of Israel in recent weeks in a bid to secure a convincing win.
On Wednesday, aides rushed him offstage at one of his campaign stops, in the southern city of Ashkelon, after militants in Gaza fired a rocket at the city. Israel responded by carrying out airstrikes against militant positions in Gaza belonging to the enclave’s ruler, Hamas.
The weather, too, has threatened the scale of the turnout, with a harsh winter storm lashing the country with rainstorms and high winds as the 116,000 eligible voters began to cast their votes. Nearly 23% of those eligible to vote had cast their ballot by 4 p.m. local time, according to a Likud spokesman.
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“Great forces, and not just the weather, are trying to get you to stay home,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote on Twitter as he urged voters to brave the elements. “A large victory for me in the primary will ensure a large victory for Likud in the parliamentary elections.”
The polls will close at 11 p.m. Israeli time, and the final results will be announced Friday morning.
In leadership contests since 2007, Mr. Netanyahu has won over 70% of the vote. Anything less than that this time may provide a blow to his image as the party’s uncontested leader and harm his chances in the national election, which will be the third in the space of a year. At stake is Mr. Netanyahu’s continued tenure as prime minister, in addition to his ability to convince Israel’s Parliament to grant him immunity from prosecution after he was indicted last month on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Mr. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing, and if he retains his seat as prime minister, political analysts say he will likely receive preferential treatment from the legal system and will have more leverage to amass the votes needed in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, to secure immunity.
During the primary campaign, Mr. Netanyahu repeatedly brandished his security record and his close personal ties to world leaders, including President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He has also sought to depict himself as the victim of a witch hunt by Israel’s national police and legal authorities, telling supporters their democratic rights are being subverted.
“They won’t decide for us. Only we will decide who will lead the Likud and the country,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote in a tweet Thursday.
Rena Riger, who served as Mr. Netanyahu’s foreign-affairs director from 2000-03 while he was a private citizen, said she voted for the premier on Thursday because he was the only one with the skill and experience to influence world leaders.
“He’s the only global leader that can bring Putin and Trump together,” she said, adding that she worked alongside Mr. Saar in Mr. Netanyahu’s office and liked him, but “that his time has not yet come.”
Mr. Saar has long been considered a standout among a rising generation of politicians. His campaign recognized Mr. Netanyahu’s achievements, but emphasized the premier’s long career has left him politically stilted and unable to form coalitions.
In a chess analogy, Mr. Saar’s campaign ran an advertisement that compared Mr. Netanyahu to a king—he is sometimes called the “King of Israel”—who is trapped in every direction and cannot move. The advertisement depicted Mr. Saar as a knight, a chess piece with the power to jump over an opponent’s pieces into safety and perhaps into a winning position.
“Today is a fateful day for the Likud and for the country. Today it is in our power…to ensure the continuation of the nationalist camp’s rule,” Mr. Saar tweeted on Thursday.
Ofer Cohen, a 55-year-old businessman from Beersheba, said he voted for Mr. Saar because he believes the popular former minister will be able to break Israel’s political deadlock by joining forces with politicians that won’t work with Mr. Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu is blocked and we want to continue to be in power,” he said.
The mere holding of a leadership primary at this pivotal stage for Likud shows the party is no longer singularly united under Mr. Netanyahu, according to David Bitan, a Likud lawmaker and a close ally of the premier.
“We’ve returned to the age of [differing] camps [within Likud] because of these elections,” Mr. Bitan said Thursday in an interview with Army Radio.
Corrections & Amplifications
The Likud party has had four leaders since its inception. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it had held four leadership elections. (Dec. 26, 2019)
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-netanyahu-faces-party-leadership-challenge-11577369183
2019-12-26 15:00:00Z
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