Likud Official Bivas Attacks Tally Gotliv Amid Row Over Party List Changes
Likud senior and local government chief Chaim Bivas, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was heard in a recording aired Thursday on i24NEWS saying that MK Tally Gotliv is "costing Likud four mandates." According to senior Likud figures, Bivas has backed scrapping the party primaries and hopes to be named housing minister, while also pushing to remove Gotliv.
Gotliv responded that she feels for Bivas, but said she is focused on "determined work for right-wing governance" that relies only on voters’ trust. She dismissed his claims as recycled and false, and said she is "a strong right-wing electoral force" that significantly strengthens the Likud slate and draws many voters to it.
The dispute comes about a month after local authority leaders met with Netanyahu to discuss changing how Likud’s Knesset list will be formed for the next election. Bivas proposed giving Netanyahu up to 10 reserved slots, expanding the national list to place 35, and pushing the district slots down below that. The meeting, attended by Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasri, Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot, Ashkelon Mayor Tomer Glam, and Dimona Mayor Benny Biton, also considered a one-time cancellation of primaries in favor of a committee that would set the list.
Opposing the broader reservations, MK David Bitan proposed a smaller model of one reserved seat per ten names on the list. Meanwhile, candidates in several districts began collecting signatures Thursday for a secret ballot intended to block Netanyahu’s planned changes to the party constitution. Likud sources say Netanyahu is trying to merge districts and alter the list structure, while supporters of the vote believe a secret ballot would let opponents speak freely without pressure. One Likud source told Nadav Elimelech on i24NEWS that Netanyahu wants "a list in his image," while Bitan said on the program "7 Nadav Elimelech" that Netanyahu "will not get ten reservations, we will give him only five," and that there will be no organizing committee.
