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Netanyahu loyalists victorious in Israel party primaries

All those Likud seniors who might have fiddled with the idea of challenging the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu were pushed to unelectable spots on the party’s new Knesset list.
Israeli Likud party leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Eighty-thousand Likud members arrived yesterday at polling booths to choose the party’s next Knesset list. Attendance was so big that organizers had to prolong voting time by two more hours.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was contested by no one as party leader. Thus, his position was not up to vote. Still, the composition of the list became a “Battle of Titans” within the party, between Netanyahu’s loyalists and the associates of possible future contenders to Likud leadership.

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