Netanyahu faces first serious leadership challenge from his own party
The first public cracks in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party appeared over the weekend, days after the country’s attorney general indicted the longtime leader on charges of bribery and fraud in three criminal cases.
The move comes after a year of political limbo that could send Israelis back to the polls for an unprecedented third general election in less than a year.
Gideon Saar, Netanyahu’s most outspoken challenger within Likud, told an Israeli news show Saturday that it was time for the party to hold primaries to decide its leader and keep it from losing power.
Saar, a 52-year-old former minister who returned to politics last year after a four-year hiatus, said he himself could end the political crisis. On Sunday, he submitted a request to the party’s central committee calling for a leadership vote to be held in the next three weeks — the deadline for the country’s lawmakers to form a long-elusive government before another general election must be called.
