Netanyahu’s Big Win Means His Party Is in Real Trouble
JERUSALEM — After weeks of bad news, Thursday was a very good night for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faced the first serious challenge to his leadership of the Likud party since 2005.
At the end of a tense, stormy primary day, in which Netanyahu’s side emitted text messages with invented commandments — “thou shalt not betray” — and supporters of his opponent, Gideon Saar, cried of foul over electoral misbehavior, Netanyahu won, convincingly.
The final result was 72.5% for Netanyahu, and 27.5% for Saar, a former minister who ran on a nationalist, agenda a notch harsher than Netanyahu’s and argued for a return to civility and decency in politics.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here