Religious right opinion leaders call on Netanyahu to step down

In the September elections, many in Israel's religious Zionist sector voted for the Likud headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though they had an alternative in the national-religious Yamina list, which brought together the HaBayit HaYehudi, the New Right and National Union parties. The religious Zionist sector viewed Netanyahu, who dominanted the Israel right in the last decade, as irreplaceable and favored his party until the most recent elections. But the Sept. 17 election did not give the right a majority and there are indictments hanging over Netanyahu’s head, forcing even the most faithful supporters to consider a change of direction.

On Oct. 4 Dudu Sa’ada, one of the sector's opinion leaders, called on Netanyahu to appoint a replacement. Sa’ada is the chairman of B’Sheva, which organizes various events such as the Jerusalem Convention, prints the weekly Religious Zionist B’Sheva newspaper and runs Channel 7.

Sa’ada wrote to his friends in the media and in politics: “In this week's Torah selection, we read about how Joshua rises to leadership with the blessing of former leader Moses. … No rotation, no primaries, no one sends out test balloons; the president and the nation are not involved. It is simple: A replacement leader is appointed and he is greeted with heartfelt congratulations. It is incumbent on a leader to retire from public life when the time is right. He must appoint a successor and advise him from his own experience, from the knowledge that he has accumulated. The test of a leader is to let others continue without him.”

Afterward, Sa’ada said in an interview with Reshet Bet Kan that he spoke to high-level Likud friends. He explained, “They are afraid to say that the time has come to think of the day after. The state is paralyzed, the people are torn. … Netanyahu must act like Moses: Come appoint a successor and bless him. There is a state to be managed and guided.”