{"id":245084,"date":"2026-08-11T16:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/245084\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:12:24","slug":"likud-approves-reserved-spots-for-israel-katz-and-saar-freezes-vote-on-haim-katz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/245084\/","title":{"rendered":"Likud approves reserved spots for Israel Katz and Sa\u2019ar, freezes vote on Haim Katz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Likud secretariat on Tuesday afternoon approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s decision, announced overnight<\/a>, to grant guaranteed spots on the party\u2019s electoral list to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar and Defense Minister Israel Katz ahead of the primary later this month.<\/p>\n

Katz and Sa\u2019ar will be given reserved placements separate from the eight slots set aside for candidates of Netanyahu\u2019s choosing, the Likud announcement said, meaning that in total, 10 of the first 29 spaces on the ruling party\u2019s slate will go to hand-picked candidates rather than to those elected by the party\u2019s roughly 140,000 members at the upcoming August 17 primary.<\/p>\n

However, following a ruling by an internal Likud court, the secretariat froze a vote on giving another guaranteed spot to Likud Central Committee chair Haim Katz, whom the tribunal noted is running in the party\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n

Guaranteeing Haim Katz\u2019s spot now \u201cmight raise a claim of reliance on Katz\u2019s part that, naturally, would cause him to stop his election campaign if the approval for the reservation becomes final,\u201d despite what appear to be potentially legitimate arguments against the move, the party court wrote in its decision.<\/p>\n

The court failed to rule on the petitioners\u2019 demand that the spots given to Sa\u2019ar and Israel Katz should come at the expense of the prime minister\u2019s reservation quota while justifying giving the foreign minister a reserved spot because \u201cthis is not actually a reservation, but rather a joint run of two factions within one list of candidates\u201d \u2014 a reference to the merger between Sa\u2019ar\u2019s New Hope party and Netanyahu\u2019s Likud.<\/p>\n

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According to the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu on Tuesday also approved shortening the requirements for party membership to allow Ze\u2019ev Elkin, a member of Sa\u2019ar\u2019s New Hope party, which is merging with Likud, and former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen to run in the primary.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLikud minister Haim Katz at the Knesset, Jerusalem, June 28, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

In a post on X, firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv slammed the decision to give the defense minister a reserved spot as \u201ca disgraceful move that mocks Likud voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel Katz, she declared, is \u201cdeeply afraid of the primary results and rightly so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel Katz, who came in at number 11 in the last Likud primary in 2022, told the Ynet news site that year that he opposed the existence of guaranteed spots on the party list.<\/p>\n

The premier\u2019s push for reserved slots<\/a> was based on concerns that the primary could elevate candidates who are highly popular among the Likud base \u2014 including Gotliv and ministers Shlomo Karhi and May Golan \u2014 but who internal party polling suggests are less appealing to moderate right-wing and swing voters whose support could prove decisive in the upcoming national election.<\/p>\n

The announcement of Sa\u2019ar, Israel Katz and Haim Katz\u2019s reserved spots came less than a day after the Tel Aviv District Court rejected a petition<\/a> backed by Netanyahu to strike down a ruling by the party\u2019s internal tribunal<\/a> that canceled a Likud Central Committee vote, which would have allowed sitting and former Knesset members, ministers and deputy ministers to compete for slots reserved for regional districts in the upcoming primaries.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLikud MK Tally Gotliv in the Knesset plenum, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 17, 2026. (Oren Ben Hakoon\/ Flash90)<\/p>\n

For decades, Likud\u2019s reserved spots for districts were only available for new MKs, acting as a diversifying tool that gives new figures a chance to make it into the Knesset. Netanyahu heavily campaigned for the Likud Central Committee to approve a change that would allow current and former lawmakers, ministers, and deputy ministers to vie for those spots. Public opinion polls have consistently shown Likud getting around 22-24 seats in the October 27 election, significantly down from its current 32.<\/p>\n

Incumbent lawmakers and ministers would be expected to compete for a limited number of available and realistic spots, leaving many out.<\/p>\n

Last week, a party court struck down<\/a> Netanyahu\u2019s bid to allow the party to cancel its primary in the event of a \u201cwartime situation\u201d and instead select candidates through an appointed committee controlled by the premier.<\/p>\n

In its ruling, the court said there was \u201cno room to open even the slightest door to canceling the primary,\u201d which is currently set for August 17, arguing that Likud \u201cis not a one-man party and will lose its character if it becomes one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tMichael Kleiner, president of the Likud\u2019s internal Supreme Court, arrives for a discussion on the proposal to remove former defense minister Yoav Galant from the party, September 29, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

Recent Hebrew media reports said that some Likud lawmakers were concerned that Netanyahu was seeking to avoid holding primaries in order to give him absolute control over the slate, a move that could see some backbenchers pushed so far down they would not realistically return to the Knesset.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Radio 103FM last Wednesday morning, Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem insisted that \u201cthis is a party that does not belong to any single person, including the prime minister. Likud is a popular movement that existed before the prime minister and will exist after him and after me. Likud needs to understand this.\u201d<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Likud secretariat on Tuesday afternoon approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s decision, announced overnight, to grant guaranteed spots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[68244,41,5740,15657,37,99,2742,17039,39661,68242,65312,36642,68243],"class_list":["post-245084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-almog-cohen","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-gideon-saar","tag-haim-katz","tag-israel","tag-israel-katz","tag-israeli-politics","tag-likud-party","tag-likud-primaries","tag-likud-secretariat","tag-new-hope-party","tag-tally-gotliv","tag-zeev-elkin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117077760564413824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}