Report: Barkat co-led Likud effort to oust and replace Netanyahu after Oct. 7

Economy Minister Nir Barkat co-led a failed attempt to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through a no-confidence vote immediately following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, Channel 12 news reported on Tuesday.

The network claimed that Barakat led the effort with fellow Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, who left the ruling party last month to form the rival “Unity” faction.

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The move, had the pair pulled it off, would have allowed for a constructive vote of no confidence, meaning the Knesset would vote to install a new prime minister without needing to dissolve parliament and call an early election.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Channel 12 said a significant number of Likud lawmakers were aware and supportive of the effort to oust Netanyahu as it was unfolding, but that they were unable to agree on who would lead in his place.

Some lawmakers also offered conditional backing of the plan, the report added, telling Barkat and Edelstein that they would vote to remove Netanyahu from power only if they could be the ones to replace him.

According to Channel 12, after the pair of would-be renegades realized they would struggle to unite lawmakers behind one single candidate, Edelstein proposed forming a temporary unity government, with him as interim prime minister, and then holding an internal leadership primary in which he would not be allowed to stand.

But before the effort could advance any further, Netanyahu caught wind of the intraparty coup attempt and coordinated with select Likud MKs and ministers to put a stop to it, the report said. As a result, Edelstein and Barkat failed to garner the support of the requisite 13 Likud MKs needed for a vote of no confidence to pass, and the plan was dropped.

While details of the alleged effort to replace Netanyahu were previously not made public, the Kan public broadcaster reported in December 2023 that Barkat was planning to challenge the premier and end his 18-year stint as party leader.

Departing Likud MK Dan Illouz also hinted at the effort in an interview with the Ynet news site last month, after he announced his resignation from the party, and claimed that about a third of the party’s lawmakers sought to remove Netanyahu as prime minister.

“When something like October 7 happens, a country that wants to survive cannot simply carry on as usual,” Illouz told the outlet.

“That also has to be reflected in the leadership, which needs to change. After October 7, that was obvious to a great many Likud members. Some of my colleagues, who today are very busy showing how close they are to Netanyahu, were back then focused on how we could replace him.”

Although the effort to replace Netanyahu fizzled out, Channel 12 said the prime minister viewed next week’s primary as an opportunity to settle scores and promote loyalists ahead of the October 27 general elections.

To that end, his insistence on securing the right to reserve as many candidates of his choosing at the top of the list — currently likely to be 10 of the top 29 slots — is intended in part to weaken Barkat, it added.

Specifically, the report said the appointment of tech entrepreneur Oren Dobronsky to one of Netanyahu’s eight reserved slots on the list was deliberately aimed at weakening the former Jerusalem mayor and tech millionaire.

Likud, in response to the report, denied the allegations that Netanyahu was deliberately targeting Barkat.

“Netanyahu retained Oren Dobronsky because he is a successful tech entrepreneur, and he will be able to lend his experience to advancing the Israeli economy,” it said.

Barkat’s office did not comment on any specific part of the television report, saying instead that he wished to congratulate Netanyahu “on the excellent decision to add Dobronsky to the list,” and that his addition would boost the “entrepreneurial forces” within the party.

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