NETANYAHU CRUSHES LIKUD RIVAL IN PRIMARY ELECTION

Embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convincingly beat back another political challenge Thursday, winning a clear victory in a primary vote to remain head of the Likud party. The landslide win sends a clear message to Netanyahu’s political rivals that he remains highly popular with his base despite criminal indictments and a failure to twice this year form a government.

The Likud primary comes just two months before Israelis return to the ballot box on March 2 for an unprecedented third general election in less than one year.

After two earlier rounds of voting, Netanyahu and his political rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, were unable to put together a government, leaving the political system in apparent deadlock with no clear solution.

The final tally in the Likud primary put Netanyahu at 72.5 percent and Gideon Sa’ar, a former government minister who has been at odds with Netanyahu in the past, at 27.5 percent.

“A huge win! Thank you to friends and Likud members for their trust, support and love,” Netanyahu tweeted an hour after the polls closed. “With God and with your help, I will lead the Likud to a big victory in the upcoming elections and continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements.”

Sa’ar conceded defeat. “Congratulations to the prime minister on his victory in the primaries,” Sa’ar tweeted. “My colleagues and I will stand behind him in campaigning for the Likud’s success in the general elections.”

Sa’ar had appealed to Likud members by suggesting that if Netanyahu continued as head of the party it would serve as a boost to Gantz’s Blue and White party in the March elections.

“Netanyahu failed twice to form a government, and there is no chance he will succeed after another round of elections either,” Sa’ar told a radio station days before the vote. “I, without a doubt, and we see it also from the polls, can succeed and that is why only a vote for me will ensure another Likud-led government and take the country out of the current political crisis.”

But in a party known for its hearty temperament and fierce loyalty to its leader, it seems that such an argument did not win over enough Likud members. Most of the party’s top leaders closed ranks behind Netanyahu as well.