Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who recently enjoyed a large victory in the party leadership race, was present on Sunday night for the party’s Chanukah celebration. Mr. Netanyahu used the forum to speak for 45 minutes, spelling out his vision and policies on many matters.

The prime minister spoke out contemptuously regarding members of the Blue & White party and their obsession with the possibility that he will seek to protect himself against criminal indictment for as long as he serves in office by using the shield of parliamentary immunity. Mr. Netanyahu promised to announce his decision within two days.

The special conference, which was hosted in the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv, was attended by Gideon Saar, who was defeated in the party primary election last week. Many, if not most, believed he was not going to participate. Saar was there, along with MKs Sharan Haskel, Yoav Kish and others, who backed his bid for the party’s leadership. There were greeted with “Bibi Bibi”.

The prime minister began by thanking his supporters, “who came out in the rain” as he commented, permitting him to emerge with the decisive victory in the race.

He mocked the top four on the Blue & White list from Chairman Benny Gantz, to Yair Lapid, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Ya’alon, explaining they are pulling in different directions and they lack defined leadership.

Netanyahu broached the matter of parliamentary immunity from prosecution, promising that “it is not against democracy but a foundation stone of democracy. Nevertheless, there is one immunity that I am requesting already now – immunity from Gantz’s idle propaganda and that of their friends. I have no time for that. I work for you and out nation. They won’t succeed,” he concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)