JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned members of his political party yesterday that a vote Monday to set up a primary battle to depose him would be the same as committing “suicide.”
Sharon appealed to the 3,000-plus members of the Likud Party’s central committee to reject an attempt by rival Benjamin Netanyahu to move up an election for party leader from next May to this fall.
Netanyahu, he said, would lead the party Sharon created to inevitable disaster.
“If they want to commit suicide, let them go with Bibi,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
Even by the standard set by past Israeli elections, the showdown in Tel Aviv is exceptionally nasty. The newspaper Maariv quoted Sharon’s son, Omri, yesterday as saying that a Netanyahu victory would turn Israel “into Bibi-stan.”
Netanyahu, a former prime minister, quit as Sharon’s treasury minister in protest over last month’s withdrawal of all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Sharon’s term has more than a year left. The latest poll found 49 percent of the committee in favor of a primary move-up and 46 percent against it.
Yesterday, Israeli media unveiled Netanyahu’s new strategy – to avoid an early general election and persuade the Knesset to kick Sharon out.
Sharon no longer holds a majority of the 120-member Knesset. He relies on a base of 40 Likud members and outside-party support.