Likud members who view Gideon Saar as the new party leader are pushing hard to persuade him to come back and run in the party’s primary election. Saar resigned unexpectedly from the cabinet a number of months ago, announcing he was going to take a break from politics. He was serving as the minister of the interior.

They are confident that he will beat out Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to become the new leader of Likud and prime minister of the nation. Saar supporters have already gathered 1,000 signatures, 500 more than is required to have him register for the primary elections. The deadline for registration is this Sunday, 22 Kislev.

Persons close to Saar explain he is meeting with party central committee members daily and they seem optimistic, working him to give the green light. They feel the time has come to replace Mr. Netanyahu as the party leader. However there are backers of Saar who signal he is not likely to return to compete against Mr. Netanyahu.

There is no doubt that the growing momentum to favor Saar has Mr. Netanyahu concerned and that is why he is trying to change the primaries from 15 Teves to 8 Teves and then hold party leadership vote on the very same day the central committee decides the party lineup. Mr. Netanyahu realizes the less time Saar would have to prepare the better for him.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)