If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could make Knesset member Oren Hazan vanish from the party’s list, he wouldn’t give the matter a second thought. He would do it in an instant, even if it came at the cost of a Knesset seat. Hazan, who fills slot 30 on the Likud list, was the subject of a journalistic investigation that claimed he allegedly managed a casino in Bulgaria, hired prostitutes for his clients and used hard drugs. In other words, he is the sum of all the prime minister’s worst nightmares.
It is more than just the fact that Hazan is currently the weak link in Netanyahu’s 61-seat coalition, the person who can make the coalition’s life miserable and eventually bring about its downfall. There is also the prime minister’s well-known aversion to the powerful Likud central committee, personified, so to speak, by Hazan. Right now, this very same central committee is attempting to restore its power to elect the candidates who make up the Likud’s Knesset list, as opposed to the primaries system. Netanyahu is doing everything he can to prevent that from happening, most recently through a compromise proposal that will be put up for a vote on July 14.
