No Anglo candidates in realistic slots on Likud list
The Likud will have no North American citizens among its candidates in realistic slots for the April 9 election after the five American and Canadian candidates who ran in Tuesday’s party primary did not succeed.
In the last Knesset, the Likud faction had two candidates born in North America: Yehudah Glick from New York and Sharren Haskel from Toronto. Neither won a high enough slot on Tuesday, though the possibility remained that Haskel could be moved to a higher spot for procedural reasons.
There were also three candidates with American citizenship running for slots reserved for candidates from particular regions.
But according to nearly complete results, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff David Sharan, whose parents made aliyah in the 1960s, lost a close race to Michal Shir, a former adviser to former minister Gideon Sa’ar, for the slot reserved for a candidate from Tel Aviv.
In Jerusalem, former city council member Yair Gabay, who has US citizenship because his mother is from New York, finished second behind Amit Halevy in the race for the slot reserved for a candidate from the capital. And Chicago-born Ziv Agmon lost in the Galilee region to Ophir Katz, who has been a political adviser to Likud politicians.
“Politics is like sports, and that’s how I take it,” said Agmon.
There is still a chance that there could be an American-born candidate on the Likud list if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers a slot reserved for a candidate of his choice to Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Michael Oren.
“I will consider any position that will enable me to bring my 40 years of experience in foreign affairs and policymaking to the service of the country,” Oren said.
Oren is also rumored to be a candidate for the post of ambassador to the United Nations, which current Ambassador Danny Danon is set to vacate soon.
New Right Party candidate Caroline Glick, who is from Chicago, said at a parlor meeting in Efrat on Tuesday night that if elected, she would be the first former lone soldier elected to the Knesset. But Oren pointed out that there were actually three former lone soldiers in the outgoing Knesset: Haim Jelin (Yesh Atid), Manuel Trajtenberg (Zionist Union) and Oren himself, who established the lone soldiers caucus and passed three bills to help them. In addition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes pride in being a former lone soldier, whose parents lived in the US when he was in the IDF.
Glick said she intends to correct the error in her upcoming political events.