ISRAEL: Benjamin Netanyahu gives victory speech after winning Likud leadership while defeated candidate Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom says he will back the new leader

Record ID: 398538

  • Title: ISRAEL: Benjamin Netanyahu gives victory speech after winning Likud leadership while defeated candidate Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom says he will back the new leader
  • Date: 20th December 2005
  • Summary: NETANYAHU SQUEEZING THROUGH CROWD INTO ROOM, CROWD CHEERING AND CLAPPING
  • Embargoed: 4th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5M0ZXVG107AT2V10FGXSEBKF2
  • Story Text: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu swept to victory in a Likud party election on Tuesday (December 20), taking the helm of the rightist faction shattered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's defection last month.
    Netanyahu, an ex-premier who opposed Sharon's Gaza pullout and vows to fight further withdrawals from land Palestinians want for a state, won 47 percent of the vote to 32 percent for Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, an exit poll showed.
    Netanyahu arrived at the party's headquarters late at night between Monday and Tuesday (December 20) to speak to his supporters. People cheered as he walked into the room, and continued clapping long after he walked up to the podium to speak.
    "I have come this evening to tell you that tonight the Likud is beginning its way back to the leadership of the country," said Netanyahu to his cheering supporters.
    Mindful of the campaign ahead and of the need to keep the spotlight on Sharon's medical concerns, Netanyahu made a point in his victory speech of wishing him "good health".
    "I believe that the first mission I want to undertake on my behalf and I believe that on your behalf too, is to sent a remedy, to to wish a complete recovery, and good health, to the prime minister, on behalf of us all and the citizens of Israel," said Netanyahu.
    Shalom, Netayahu's rival for the party's leadership, arrived at his Tel Aviv campaign headquarters to address his supporters, and announced he will stay in the party and will assist Netanyahu to lead it to victory in the upcoming elections.
    "Less than an hour ago, I called Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, congratulated him on his victory, and told him I am at his beck and call in the Likud Party," he said.
    Likud has led Israel for all but 10 years since it first took power in 1977, but it is now battling for third place in opinion polls behind Sharon's new centrist Kadima party and leftist Labour. A general election is set for March 28.
    The Likud primary was overshadowed by Sharon's admission to a Jerusalem hospital on Sunday suffering from a mild stroke. Political analysts said worries over the 77-year-old former general's staying power could help Likud's fortunes.
    Sharon quit Likud in November to head off a rebellion by party ultranationalists trying to topple him for abandoning the Gaza Strip in September after 38 years of occupation.
    A Netanyahu win anoints him as the party's candidate to run against Sharon, who has dominated the political scene for years and enjoys high approval ratings.
    It also confirms a return to Likud's rightist roots. The party had long opposed giving up Jewish settlements on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
    56-year-old Netanyahu, who as Sharon's finance minister won market praise for deep spending cuts and free-market reforms that helped lift Israel out of recession, quit Sharon's cabinet in protest against the Gaza pullout.
    He ran for the Likud leadership on a platform of refusing further territorial withdrawals and promising expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in defiance of a U.S.-sponsored "road map" to peace with the Palestinians.
    Surveys have predicted a major loss for Likud in the March election, with Sharon's Kadima luring away many of its supporters. Likud, which currently has 40 seats in the 120-member parliament, is expected to keep only about 12.
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