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.
This setup could perhaps explain why Netanyahu and other senior Likud members prefer to keep silent, while Hazan goes about disgracing the Likud. Netanyahu fully understands the threat posed not only by Hazan, who will have no qualms about taking his revenge if he is challenged. He is wary of the central committee itself. Large sections of the committee actually embraced Hazan right in front of the media. In keeping with their longstanding claims that the press is harassing the right, they are now saying that media is hounding Hazan. This same central committee could use the July 14 vote to get back at Netanyahu. It would explain why the prime minister prefers to keep his distance from the problem that is Hazan. He will continue doing so as long as the central committee hasn’t voted and as long as his government of 61 seats hinges on a single vote.
Other senior Likud members are caught in the same trap. They have no interest in getting into a fight with the central committee, which considers Hazan and his family to be their own flesh and blood. Nor do they want Hazan blocking any legislative proposals they might have, either in the Knesset or in the committee.
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