Netanyahu’s Likud Party holds primaries ahead of Israel’s general elections

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Likud’s primaries are among the most heated and unruly events in the Israeli political calendar. The legislative election is also likely to be the most consequential for both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, adding particular intrigue to Monday’s primaries. The right-wing party broke the Labor-left monopoly on Israeli politics when Likud leader Menachem Begin became prime minister following the 1977 general election. Likud has been credited with radically redrawing Israel’s political map and shifting the centre ground dramatically to the right. Likud-led governments have waged major wars and military campaigns, including the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the government’s violent response to the Palestinian second Intifada beginning in 2000, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The party also broke with past government consensus on the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank by defying international law and offering increasing support to violent settler groups. At the same time, successive Likud governments have actively worked to halt any progress on the two- state solution agreed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1990s. Since Netanyahu began to dominate Israeli politics over the past two decades, there has been widespread opposition in Israel to this peace process. Under Israel’s system of proportional representation, each party submits its list of candidates, ranging from its primary choice – such as the party leader – to the least likely to be elected. Seats in the 120-member Knesset or parliament are then allocated according to each list’s share of the vote. For instance, if Likud got 23.4 percent of the votes, as they did in the last election, the top 32 names on their list would be given seats. Likud, the Democrats party, and the left-wing Hadash are among a handful of Israeli parties that allow members to determine who will appear on the list and in what order. Beyond those places earmarked for women, young candidates and recent immigrants, are candidates selected personally by Netanyahu. Eight of these are granted through his position as leader and three via deals struck with others in the party. That leaves just 15 realistic places for other candidates in the top 30. As well as granting eight seats to Netanyahu as party leader, Likud has agreed to allow three other members of the Knesset to appear on the list uncontested. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would be allowed to appear after a deal when his New Hope party merged with Likud in March 2025. Defence Minister Israel Katz’s name would also go uncontested, leaving him free to oversee the multiple wars the country is engaged in. Likud Constitution Committee Chair Haim Katz would be included through a special deal struck ahead of this year’s primaries. Israel Katz is typically ranked as the most hardline and outspoken of Likud’s ministers. A stalwart Netanyahu loyalist, Katz has repeatedly spoken in uncompromising terms about the genocide in Gaza. In October 2023, he called for cutting water, electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza, and withholding humanitarian aid until Israeli captives were returned. As defence minister, he has also backed maintaining an Israeli security zone around Gaza, while in July 2026, he announced plans for new Israeli settlements in the enclave as well as new outposts in the occupied West Bank. More recently, Katz insisted on Israeli forces remaining in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed. Gideon Saar has taken a hardline position on both Israel’s genocide in Gaza and against Israel’s international critics. In addition to supporting the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Saar was also active in defending the restrictions on humanitarian aid allowed into the enclave that many, including the United Nations, attributed to causing a famine in August 2025. Veteran politician Haim Katz is another long-term ally of Netanyahu, and like the prime minister, also faces corruption charges. He is another full-throated supporter of the genocide in Gaza and in 2024 called for new Israeli settlements in the Palestinian enclave. So far, Netanyahu has not said who he will nominate, although he has publicly backed certain candidates to run in the primaries, such as former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen. Apart from the names listed above, Netanyahu has given a spot to tech entrepreneur, restaurateur and TV personality Oren Dobronsky, who, if elected, Likud said, will “lead efforts on artificial intelligence in the economy, education, healthcare and finance”. A six-year veteran of Mamram, the Israeli army’s central computing unit, and of Silicon Valley, Dobronsky found himself forced to apologise earlier this week for online comments made in June over the United States’ decision to negotiate directly with Iran, in which he called US President Donald Trump a “morally corrupt piece of s***.” The tech entrepreneur was also active on social media in the wake of the Hamas-led attack of October 2023, saying that all of Gaza should be levelled. He said neighbouring Arab countries should be given a few days to take in as many Palestinians as they could, and then “not even a cat should be left alive” in Gaza. 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