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Netanyahu’s reserved-slot push
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced overnight Monday that he intends to seek approval from the Likud Secretariat for guaranteed places on the party’s Knesset slate for Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Minister Haim Katz.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced overnight Monday that he intends to seek approval from the Likud Secretariat”
Netanyahu has already been granted eight reserved slots on the Likud list, at positions 3, 5, 9, 11, 15, 18, 26 and 29, and the central question is whether the three ministers will be placed within those eight slots or whether Netanyahu is seeking three additional guaranteed positions beyond that quota.
Likud’s official statement said: “The Likud Secretariat will be asked to approve, alongside the prime minister’s reserved slots, the placement of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Likud Central Committee chairman Minister Haim Katz on the Likud slate.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that Likud announced on Monday that entrepreneur and businessman Oren Dobronsky would receive Netanyahu’s first reserved slot on the party’s Knesset list ahead of the elections.
Dobronsky and the Trump backlash
The Jerusalem Post said Likud described Dobronsky as right-wing and expected him after the elections to lead the development of AI in the economy, education, medicine, and other sectors.
It also reported that shortly after the announcement of his reserved slot, it emerged that Dobronsky had previously attacked US President Donald Trump, calling him “a morally corrupt person” in a post on X/Twitter.
Dobronsky later walked back his statement, writing on Facebook that “President Trump is the greatest friend that Israel ever had in the Whitehouse [sic].”
In parallel, Israel National News reported that former Fire and Rescue Commissioner Dedi Simhi is considering ending his political partnership with Benny Gantz and the Blue and White party and weighing a potential jump to Likud if offered a reserved spot.
Court, primaries, and internal stakes
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tel Aviv District Court rejected petitions filed against a Likud tribunal decision concerning candidates running in the party’s district slots, upholding the cancellation of a vote that had sought to allow incumbent MKs, ministers, and deputy ministers to run for the slots reserved for the districts.
“The court’s decision upheld the cancellation of a vote”
It said the tribunal’s decision was made last week after petitions against the provision, and that the vote had been approved by a margin of five votes, just as it was discovered that exactly five voting envelopes had gone missing.
ynetglobal described Netanyahu’s push as unfolding amid an increasingly fierce battle over positions on the party’s slate ahead of the next Knesset election, with senior figures debating whether reserved placements would come within Netanyahu’s existing eight slots.
The Jerusalem Post added that Likud has prided itself on conducting primaries in which over 100,000 of its registered members are eligible to vote for the Knesset list, while Netanyahu has pushed to change the system in recent weeks ahead of the primaries.