The Herut faction of Likud held its internal elections this week and produced eight “new faces” to stand for election to the Knesset on May 17. At the same time, a number of Herut veterans are retiring from the Knesset of their own accord. The newcomers, who never sat in the Knesset before, are among the first 17 names on the election list. If Likud wins 40 seats–it has 39 in the outgoing Knesset–all of them are assured of election.
The best known newcomer is former Air Force Commander Gen. Ezer Weizman who was assigned the number-two spot after Herut leader Menachem Beigin. Weizman served briefly as Minister of Transport in former Premier Golda Meir’s “wall-to-wall” coalition government following the 1967 Six-Day War.
Other new Herut candidates include economist Yigal Cohen; Prof. Yosef Rom: former Col. Mordechai Zippori; and Ronnie Milo, a lawyer. They were assigned places between 10th and 17th on the Herut list. Haim Landau, a long-time lieutenant of Beigin and Deputy Knesset Speaker Ben Zion Keshet, decided not to stand for re-election. Others, including Sephardic MK Menahem Yedid and MK Yosef Kremerman, an industrialist, were not elected by the faction’s 600-member Central Committee.
It was learned, meanwhile, that Beigin may not be able to participate fully in the campaign because of a heart ailment for which he was hospitalized following a tour abroad. Doctors at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv said that Beigin would be discharged in about a week. But party campaign organizers said he would have to cut back on his schedule of public appearances and may not be able to speak at outdoor rallies.
Gen. (Res.) Ariel Sharon, the Yom Kippur War hero who quit Likud recently to form his own Shlomzion faction, announced that he would try to organize a new coalition embracing all political forces that oppose any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. But he said he would hold off until Beigin leaves the hospital. Sharon is likely to try to recruit former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who announced last week that he would not stand for re-election on the Labor Alignment ticket because of its policies on withdrawal from the West Bank.
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