Likud chairman, Benjamin Netanyahu, started a series of steps in an attempt to prevent Moshe Feiglin from appearing on the Likud part list. Feiglin was convicted on several charges of mutiny in 1997, and is heading the far-right apposition at the Likud.
Netanyahu said during a meeting at the Likud headquarters, in Tel Aviv, that he is returning to the office as the head of the Likud after 6 years, adding that he hopes “to start a journey which will lead the party back in power”.
During a meeting with Zvi Cohen, the Likud’s Elections Committee Chairman, he discussed ways to implement changes in the party, especially the Likud’s constitution which prevents Israelis who were convicted of felonies from becoming members of the party’s elections list.
His main aim is to oust Feiglin, therefore he is attempting to pass the following amendments into the party’s constitution; “A person who has been convicted of an offense, and sentenced to three months of prison or more, will not be eligible to stand for the Likud party Knesset list”, Israeli online daily Ynetnews reported.
Feiglin was convicted five years ago, and the amendment which Netanyahu intends to pass does not specify when the offenses were committed.
In 1997, Feiglin was convicted in Jerusalem on charges of mutiny, and was sentenced to six months in prison (active time), and 12 months of conditional prison time.
Netanyahu’s effort to pass the amendment has resulted in a delay on the vote of the party’s list, which has been pushed back to January 9, 2006, the Ynetnews added.
The Likud meeting on changes to its constitution will take place January 4, 2006, and the vote will take place the next day.
The amendment is stricter that the Knesset laws, especially since the Knesset calls for a minimum of seven years to pass after a conviction of any individual who wants to be a Knesset member.
If Feiglin finds himself unable to torpedo the amendment, he will head to the High Court.
During the first meeting for Netanyahu as a chairman of the Likud, he hinted to Feiglin that he has no place in the party.
He said that malfunctions were committed by marginal elements in the Likud, and that he ordered his legal teams to launch a campaign against corruptions “and handle these malfunctions”.
In an attempt top show the “moderate face of the Likud”, Netanyahu said that the party has achieved a peace deal with Egypt, and supported peace agreements with Jordan “without preservations”.
He added that he “conducted successful negotiations” with the Palestinians when he was the Prime Minister, and singed a number of agreements.
