Faction Within Likud to PM: Drop the Bloc, Make a Deal With Gantz

A group of Likud members has begun a campaign to force Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to drop the right-wing/religious bloc he has committed the party to. The “New Likudniks,” led by Nir Hirshman, has launched the campaign via ads and billboards calling for the Likud to negotiate with Blue and White to establish a unity government without bringing in the New Right, United Torah Judaism, and Shas.

“We voted for the Likud, not for a bloc,” the billboards posted along several highways in the Tel Aviv area say. A poll taken in recent days proves their point, according to the group: The Kantar Institute poll shows that 57% of Likud supporters prefer a government based on the Likud and Blue and White, while 30% want a government that includes the Likud’s coalition partners.

In a social media post, Hirshman wrote that “the platform of the Likud is liberal and has little in common with the interests of other parties headed by individuals suspected of critical activity. Issues such as preventing gender discrimination, the rule of law, equal rights of all citizens, and freedom of the individual to make their own decisions on personal matters are not on the agenda of the heads of these coalition partners, and they will not agree to these conditions. But these are the values of Likud members.

“In addition, keeping out the coalition partners will ensure more government ministries for the Likud, which as the largest party should not have to reduce its presence in the government to satisfy these partners,” he wrote, adding that “this coalition gamesmanship is destroying us. The time has come to end these ego games and go back to running the country.”