The Herut election slate that the party’s Central Committee produced last week may be altered substantially in the process of becoming the Likud ballot that Israeli voters will see on Election Day, Nov. 1.
Concern was expressed that the 35 Knesset candidates selected by Herut include not one woman, and there is no Arab or Druse in a safe slot, meaning one likely to be elected.
Herut is the largest component of the Likud bloc. The second largest is the Liberal Party.
Liberals reacted angrily Tuesday to hints from Likud campaign manager Moshe Arens, a senior Herut man, that they are over-represented on the ticket as matters now stand.
According to Arens, the “problem” is that the Likud list contains almost one Liberal for every two Herut candidates. That, in his opinion, is out of proportion to the size of the Liberal’s political constituency.
Arens noted that the original Herut-Liberal agreement to form the Likud bloc 20 years ago is out of date and should be replaced by the merger agreement concluded between the two parties, but not yet implemented.
Herut also seems to regret the two safe seats it pledged to Yigal Hurvitz’s Ometz faction on the Likud list and the one promised the lone Tami Knesset member, Aharon Abuhatzeira.
If they were made available, the gender and ethnic imbalance could be rectified.
Some Herut activists are suggesting that Ometz’s No. 2 man, Zalman Shoval, forfeit his promised safe spot in favor of a woman candidate.
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