Netanyahu’s allies float breakaway threat if Likud primary plan is rejected

Tensions inside Likud are peaking ahead of a decisive meeting of the party’s constitution committee on Sunday, as internal talks continue over how to set the rules for the party’s primaries. According to a report by Anna Barsky in Maariv, people familiar with the matter say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself is not publicly issuing the threat, but his closest allies have recently been sending unusually hard-line messages in private conversations with senior Likud figures.

Those messages say Netanyahu will not quietly accept a rejection of his preferred model for the internal elections. If his proposal is defeated in the committee’s secret ballot, aides are reportedly raising the dramatic possibility that Netanyahu could leave together with most of the current Likud Knesset faction.

The same sources say Netanyahu and his camp understand they would not be able to take the historic, official name “Likud” with them, because it legally belongs to the party itself. Even so, the threat is seen as serious because a mass departure of most faction members would have major financial consequences, especially for the allocation of party funding.

Such a move could leave Likud’s long-standing institutions in a difficult position and trigger a major political shake-up. Sunday’s vote is expected to determine whether the party moves toward compromise or toward a rupture.