Feb 6, 2019

The Likud primaries this week were discouraging for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. None of the high-ranking Likud officials likely know what came over Netanyahu to make him paint former Minister Gideon Saar as the enemy of the nation. Saar, who resigned from the Knesset more than four years ago, is now making a comeback. Netanyahu is obsessed with demonizing Saar as someone conspiring to bring the prime minister down.

One way or another, Netanyahu has used his extensive influence, including the dirtiest of the tricks in his arsenal, to politically eliminate Saar or at least to restrain him. Saar, who was confronted with Netanyahu’s mythological power in the Likud, scored quite an achievement, arriving reaching fourth place on the list, a dramatic blow for Netanyahu. Even the Likud voters are signaling the prime minister that his powers are limited. They are willing to follow the prime minister through hell and high water, but not everywhere.

The Likud has never seen such a phenomenon. Netanyahu stopped at nothing: First he enlisted his son Yair to make a series of toxic posts to Facebook against Saar. The young Netanyahu accused Saar and his wife, popular television presenter Geula Even, of being leftists. Saar was blamed for all the woes of the Likud and even of the entire country.

When that didn’t succeed, Netanyahu went on the offensive directly. He accused Saar of subversion and conspiracy with President Reuven Rivlin to depose him while his associates hinted that Rivlin plans to charge Saar with composing the next government if the Likud wins. Netanyahu did not let up even on the day of the primaries. “I do not retract a syllable of what I said regarding Saar,” he said into the microphones. The prime minister invested tremendous energy this past week in telephone calls and a personal lobbying campaign against Saar. Someone in the Likud told Al-Monitor that if Netanyahu had been so determined with the Iranians, Iran would have long since become a liberal democracy.

Evidently, Saar’s main sin was that he took first place in the two Likud primaries in which he participated (2009 and 2012). Another was running Rivlin for president over Netanyahu’s head and winning.