Nobody wants to join him: The "quality" candidates Netanyahu is targeting keep refusing

Towards the end of the interview with Yoav Horowitz, who was the person closest to Netanyahu, he told Yaron Avraham an amazing sentence: "I have known Netanyahu for many years. He knows he is going to lose the election to Gadi Eisenkot. He is sure of it." "Then why is he running?", asked Yaron Avraham. Horowitz replied: "Because it's Netanyahu. He will always run, he will never give up in his life."

These things were said on the sidelines of Horowitz's interview, who presented an indictment on three channels on Friday evening against Netanyahu's rule, harsh things about the Prime Minister, his wife Sara, about the atrocities they have been maintaining for many years.

Yoav Horowitz knows Netanyahu well. He was close to him for years. A man of trust, a confidant, a person who saw and heard everything. He served as Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister's Office, as Director General of the Prime Minister's Office, and was also close to Sara. When he says that Netanyahu knows he will lose but will never surrender and give up, it means that this trait is known to everyone who was close to Netanyahu.

Never give up in life, always look for the crack, the protrusion, the small chance with which you can turn everything around. Ask the cabinet members on the day of October 7th, his close advisors. Everyone said on that bitter day that this is it, a matter of days to weeks, and everyone from Netanyahu onwards will go home. They will be thrown right out of the offices in the face of the huge failure, the amazing omission, the huge collapse. When everyone was thinking about the day after the rule and the impending dismissal, Netanyahu was already building a survival route. And he survived big time. Until the last day of the term, election day, October 27th.

Netanyahu knows that these are going to be the hardest elections he has had in recent years, elections centered on the October 7th massacre, and nothing, there is no campaign. There are pathetic, meaningless, quite worn-out attacks against Eisenkot.

When Yoav Horowitz says that Netanyahu is sure that this time he will lose to Gadi Eisenkot, there is another thing. Horowitz is the manager of Gadi Eisenkot's 100-day project. The man who is building for him the first 100 days in the Prime Minister's Office if and when he is elected. He is from Eisenkot's close team. From the narrow headquarters. He sees like his friends at headquarters, like many others, that the Likud has no campaign.

Less than three months to the elections, in a month the lists will close and the Likud has no campaign. Netanyahu knows that these are going to be the hardest elections he has had in recent years, elections centered on the October 7th massacre, and nothing, there is no campaign. There are pathetic, meaningless, quite worn-out attacks against Eisenkot. Again Mansour Abbas, and again "Gadi has no government without the Arab factions", another attack on the Democrats party, here a quote from Gaby Lasky, a member of the Democrats list, and there a message from Moshe Radman, also a member of the Democrats list. This is the campaign. And of course, non-stop attacks by Yinon Magal, Yaakov Bardugo and all sorts on Channel 14 against Eisenkot. The list of curses is pathetic: 'daba' (fool), doesn't read books, doesn't know English, 'kusbara' (cilantro), 'jobnik' (slacker), defeatist. This is the level. This is not a campaign, this is an unfunny joke.

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Likud has not published election platforms in recent election cycles. They said there, rightly, that it is quite outdated, people don't read it anyway, only the very elderly. But there were campaigns, some of them brilliant. Netanyahu, who comes to this election with a huge hunchback, the October 7th massacre and all fronts open. Only yesterday we were informed that the Americans are demanding that the IDF begin to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in favor of a few hundred Moroccan soldiers.

Also against Hezbollah there is no decision, and Iran, oh Iran, threatens the whole region, makes a mockery of the United States and its President Donald Trump, and sets insolent demands in exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz. In the end, this is what came out of this whole war. Pleas to the Iranians to open the Strait of Hormuz that were open before the war.

And there is another indication of the Likud's difficult situation this time. Strong names don't want to come to Likud. Netanyahu understands quality very well. Knows who brings votes, who drives them away. He despises most of the Likud list members. Scorns them. Zero appreciation. "With such a list you don't bring power," he said recently and demanded ten reserved spots. In the end, he compromised on eight. He wants strong names, people with a record, statesmen, those who will bring back the ten mandates that abandoned the Likud.

The figures he wants are known: Gaby Ashkenazi, Yuval Steinitz, Yossi Cohen and Ron Dermer. Meanwhile, everyone is giving Netanyahu a negative. Netanyahu is not giving up. The pressure on former Mossad chief Cohen and former minister Dermer continues with all his might. Netanyahu needs them to signal that here are people with a serious record who want to integrate into the Likud. Mainly, as mentioned, to bring back the voters who abandoned, those defined as moderate right, state right. Also people like Avida Bachar and Talik Gvili, members of bereaved families from the October 7th massacre, gave a negative. They are important to him to signal that he is not to blame, not responsible.

Half of the Likud Knesset members are starting to pack their offices.

And there are those who left the Likud and are now running independently like Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein who are fed up with the Likud. Fed up mainly because of the fire sale to the Haredim. They understand that if the Likud has a soft underbelly, it is the Haredim issue. The story with the Haredim drives the Likudniks crazy. The IDF for most Likud voters is a sacred value. They served, the sons, the daughters, the brothers and the sisters, everyone served. Also most of the parents. And therefore the evasion laws of all kinds annoy them. Netanyahu is now trying to distance himself from the Haredi factions after working for them "full full" in recent years. And he knows why.

Let's go back to Erdan and Edelstein. They jumped into the water last Thursday, announced the establishment of a party and are quite worrying Netanyahu. If they run to the end without mergers, and I doubt it, it's purely on Likud votes. After all, there are no voters for the change bloc who will vote for them after they said they belong to the right, will of course sit with Netanyahu and rule out sitting with the Democrats party. In the Likud, they are angry at them. Listen to the things that Yaakov Bardugo, the media figure perhaps closest to Netanyahu, says about Erdan. Almost curses. Last night, on the program 'Meet the Press', Erdan said that the Likud offered him a reserved spot and he refused. This is apparently a sensitive point for Netanyahu who hears mostly refusals to join the Likud list, because an hour later the Likud published the following message: "Total fake news!".

Prime Minister Netanyahu did not offer Gilad Erdan a reserved spot, not directly and not indirectly. In about a week, next Monday, the Likud primaries will be held. More than half of the Likud list will go home at the end of the primaries. Netanyahu would be happy if 90 percent of them were ousted, maybe even more. It doesn't really excite him if Amir Ohana, Eli Cohen, Yariv Levin or Boaz Bismuth are placed at the top of the list. He would like to see other people at the top, but he drove everyone away, and was left only with a group of sycophants, panicked, yes-men. "With this list you don't bring power," he already diagnosed accurately.