Netanyahu Backs Off Plan to Scrap Likud Primaries, Seeks Reserved Slots Instead

by | Jun 23, 2026 | News

a person is casting a vote into a box

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has retreated from a contentious bid to cancel his Likud party’s primaries, opting instead to push for a guaranteed bloc of reserved slots on the party’s Knesset slate, according to a report Monday by the Kan public broadcaster, as Israel moves toward national elections expected by the end of October.

For weeks, Netanyahu had weighed two options for shaping Likud’s next slate, both of which would have handed him unprecedented control. One would have replaced the party’s primaries with a selection committee empowered to build the list. The other would preserve the primaries while parachuting between eight and ten of his handpicked candidates into the top places on the slate. Both marked a sharp break from Likud’s tradition of choosing its candidates through internal democratic votes.

Now, Kan reported, the prime minister believes that dropping the more aggressive plan to cancel the primaries could help him win approval for the reserved slots he has long sought and repeatedly been denied. The arrangement, however, is far from settled.

The fiercest resistance has come from within his own ranks. Likud lawmaker David Bitan, one of the party’s most influential figures, launched a public and legal campaign against the effort, petitioning the party’s internal court and warning that Likud could disappear within a decade if its primaries are scrapped. The foundation of Likud, he argued, is the bond between elected officials and party members, and changing the rules just weeks before a vote would be illegitimate.

Behind the maneuvering lies a strategic calculation. Netanyahu is said to fear that an open primary could elevate candidates beloved by the party base but unappealing to the moderate and swing voters whose support could decide the election. Reserved slots would let him diversify the list with figures of his choosing.

The dispute is expected to come to a head later this week, when Likud’s Constitution Committee meets to decide. With the party slipping in the polls from its current 32 seats toward the low twenties, and locked in a tight race against a rising opposition, the fight over who controls the Likud list has become a fight over the party’s very future.

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