Netanyahu Blamed for His Party’s Woes

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir lashed out at defeated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, blaming him for the Likud Party’s dismal performance in Israel’s general elections.

“He completely destroyed the Likud Party, almost totally. A person can’t win a tough election if his party is crushed. He took all the power and it didn’t work; the Likud is destroyed,” Shamir, a former Likud leader, told Israel’s Army Radio.

The right-wing Likud plunged to 19 seats in Monday’s general election, a steep drop from the 32 parliamentary seats it won in the previous election in 1996.

Shamir said the two-pronged electoral system that was first used in the 1996 elections and allows voters to choose both a party and a prime minister candidate was partly responsible for Likud’s poor performance.

He said he refused to vote for Netanyahu and left his prime ministerial ballot empty. For parliament, he voted for the hard-line National Union party instead of Likud.

Netanyahu was beaten by Labor leader Ehud Barak, who won 56% of the vote to 44% for Netanyahu, a landslide by Israeli standards.

Shamir warned it would take a long time to rebuild Likud after its electoral defeat under Netanyahu.

“He [Netanyahu] is a man who only thinks about himself; he doesn’t see ideology, he doesn’t see plans, he only sees himself. The Likud was built on ideals and deeds, and without these it collapsed,” Shamir said.

Under Netanyahu’s tenure, several leading Likud members fled the party, citing Netanyahu’s dubious leadership style, including former Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai and former Finance Minister Dan Meridor, who moved to the Center Party.