Likud Officials Say Yair Netanyahu Is Driving Push for Reserved Slots

Tensions are rising inside Likud over Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal reserved spots on the party list, with senior party figures accusing his son Yair of being behind the effort. The Knesset primaries are due no later than July 28, and party sources say Netanyahu, as Likud chairman, is delaying convening the party institutions to vote on the primary date in order to secure as many personal reservations as possible.

According to a report by Ynet’s Yuval Karni, senior Likud officials said, "Netanyahu’s reservations are not Benjamin Netanyahu’s reservations. They are Yair Netanyahu’s reservations." They alleged that Yair Netanyahu is promoting names of people he knows or identifies with, as part of an effort to place candidates he wants advanced on the list.

The report said several of the names being discussed in Netanyahu’s circle are closely associated with Yair Netanyahu, including Tal Gilboa and Caroline Glick, both known for loud and hardline rhetoric. Officials also named Channel 14 presenter Magen Tabbibi, Talik Guailli, the mother of Sgt. Ran Guailli, who was abducted and killed on October 7, and Gilboa, who serves as Netanyahu’s adviser on animal welfare and said in a previous interview that "Yair Netanyahu opened the door for me to the Prime Minister’s Office."

Likud officials also said Netanyahu wants to reserve a spot for one member of the right-wing group HaBitchonistim, either founder Amir Avivi or CEO Yaron Buskila.