MK Edelstein Calls for Likud Primaries if Netanyahu Can’t Form Gov’t

MK Yuli Edelstein, the second-in-command of the Likud party, called on the weekend for the Likud to hold leadership primaries if Binyamin Netanyahu cannot form a government if the ruling coalition collapses.

“If Netanyahu knows how to assemble a government in the current Knesset, I definitely won’t stand in his way because I said Israel doesn’t need new elections. If not, then hold a competition for leadership of the party,” Edelstein told Channel 12 news.

“I usually don’t get into fights that I don’t think I can win,” he said.

If a majority of the Knesset votes for an alternative government, it is possible it could be formed without resorting to new elections.

Edelstein announced last year that he intended to challenge Netanyahu to lead Likud.

He also said that primaries could be organized in several weeks.

“I think there are two things Israel does not need — one is the continuation of the current government, and the second is elections,” he said. “It’s possible to assemble a good government, a stable one, in the current Knesset.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government is hanging by a thread after MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi (Meretz) resigned from the coalition on Thursday, bringing the government to a minority.