Senior Likud Members Line Up to Protect ‘New Likudnik’ Faction

Jerusalem, 6 December, 2017 (TPS) -- Communications Minister Tzahi Hanegbi, MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) and a group of Likud Party activists said Wednesday that they would ask the party’s court to reinstate members of the New Likudnik faction, who were ousted from the party over the summer amidst claims that they were left-wing “plants” meant to destroy the party from the inside.

“There have been far-reaching changes in the behavior, atmosphere and procedures that govern the Likud in recent times,” the appeal said. “We have turned from being an open, Liberal, democratic party that welcomes a variety of opinions into a party that seeks to minimise the number of members and to limit party membership to individuals who agree with the views of party back benchers, apparently because there has been some internal criticism of the party chairman.

“This behavior stands to change the face of this party and steer it away from the principles laid out by the party founders and the by-laws laid out in the party constitution.”

The appeal is the latest salvo in an ongoing struggle between the New Likudniks group and some party MKs who view the upstart group as a threat to party unity. In August, a group of party activists, reportedly backed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Coalition Whip David Bitan, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and several Likud MKs, accusing the New Likud faction of “participating in a campaign to slander the head of the Likud and prime minister.”

“The New Likudniks say they are joining the party to support the value of the rule of law,” Hotovely said at the time, before her tone turned sarcastic. “Really? Do you respect the rule of law by breaking the law? By trampling ideology? By ignoring the Likud Party constitution?

“Is it in the spirit of the ‘rule of law’ to come here in the name of left-wing values, when the Likud  Party is explicitly a right-wing party?” Hotovely asked.

Hotovely’s video followed on the heels of comments Tuesday by fellow Likud MK Nava Boker, who called for the New Likudniks to be kicked out of the party, calling them “a malicious plot of the left-wing to influence [the Likud] from the inside and bring down the right-wing government.

“They belong to Meretz and to the Labor Party,” Boker said.

Responding to the move, the New Likudniks said the move to oust them from the party showed the power of their movement, and denied claims that they are pushing a left-wing agenda. But the group is committed to claiming what it believes at the group’s responsibility to expand the party’s horizons.

“What sort of Likud do we want? An open, Liberal one or a paranoid, closed one?” asked Lior Meiri, a leader of the New Likudniks. “The way to become a party with 40 Knesset seats is by welcoming new communities into the party – young people, taxpayers, reservists. The real beauty of Israel.  We will not allow the backbenchers to drag the Likud into an abyss in order to preserve their personal interests.

“We will fight, and we will win,” Meiri said.