This archive report was first published on 26 December 2019.
Published on December 26, 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political future was on the line as Likud party members voted on whether to stick with their scandal-scarred leader or replace him ahead of a general election in March.
Netanyahu, who was indicted last month on corruption charges including bribery, was widely expected to prevail over his challenger, Gideon Saar, a seasoned but less popular party veteran. However, this was the most serious challenge to the prime minister's party leadership since 2005, and fears of a low turnout on a day of bad weather made the outcome harder to predict.
The result of the vote, expected to be known early Friday, would determine whether Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, would lead Likud into the country's third parliamentary election in less than a year. The previous two general elections, in April and September, ended inconclusively and left the deeply divided nation in a political deadlock.
Netanyahu's campaign rally in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon on Wednesday night was interrupted by a rocket launch from nearby Gaza, which was intercepted by the military. The incident provided an occasion for Netanyahu's rivals in other parties to sting him, with his chief opponent in the general election, Benny Gantz, describing it as a 'badge of shame' for the prime minister's security policy in southern Israel.
Mr. Saar has avoided attacking Mr. Netanyahu personally, instead focusing on his clean image and the predictions, backed up by opinion polls, that with Mr. Netanyahu at the helm, the March election may do nothing to resolve Israel's political logjam.
