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Preparing for a fight over the Likud leadership?
By Mazal Mualem
Tags: Israel News, Likud 

At a Likud Knesset faction meeting some 10 days ago, Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon surprised his faction colleagues by complaining to them about the weekend newspapers that presented him as a "political zigzagger" following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's June 28 address at Bar-Ilan University. Ya'alon, who in the past few years voiced very hawkish positions, endorsed Netanyahu's speech in which the prime minister expressed readiness for the establishment of an independent, demilitarized Palestinian state.

The astonishment in the faction meeting increased when Ya'alon hinted that some of his fellow members were behind the media attack. "I was very surprised to see that I was being criticized for backing the prime minister," said Ya'alon. He added that he preferred to speak openly "and put things on the table," adding that he hoped "we could have a different culture here."

Ya'alon felt the criticism was pointless, that some of his colleagues maliciously tried to harm him, and he therefore decided to express those feelings. However, the manner in which he brought up the subject, and the forum in which he chose to do so, signaled to other members an absence of political skill and understanding: To complain in a faction meeting about newspaper criticism? Ya'alon is operating in an arena where such criticism is a daily occurance.
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However, some people thought Ya'alon's comments indicated an increased political awareness; that Ya'alon sought to deliver an indirect message to potential political rivals, to demonstrate that he is "aware of the rules of the game" despite his aloof image.

The question whether Ya'alon may one day win the Likud's leadership was raised recently among party activists. Ya'alon does not talk, in any forum, about his political ambitions - he suffices with a declaration that he entered politics "in order to influence." However, his increased political activity at the grassroots level arouses suspicions that his present influential position does not satisfy him.

Ya'alon's political assistant, Itzik Ashkenazi, used to be a member of Netanyahu's team. The energetic aide apparently realized that the general's aura was insufficient and wanted to expose Ya'alon, personally, to as many Likud activists as possible. Now, just four months after the elections, it seems as though Ya'alon is in the midst of primaries. The day before yesterday he held a parlor meeting in Shoham with 30 Likud activists who live in central Israel, and in earlier weeks visited Netivot, Afula, Kiryat Shmona and the krayot suburbs north of Haifa. Every visit included a meeting with a small number of activists, either in the local branch or a private home.

Ya'alon's ties with Netanyahu are close. To a large extent he has become the prime minister's confidant. And so, for example, the prime minister consulted him before making the Bar-Ilan speech. Even though he had to settle for the role of strategic affairs minister rather than defense minister, Ya'alon is one of the people whose influence on the prime minister, when it comes to political and security matters, is the greatest.

The comparison with other retired generals who have dabbled in politics cannot be avoided. Some of them crashed politically after they failed to grasp the code of political conduct. Will Ya'alon be an Ami Ayalon or the Likud's equivalent of Amram Mitzna? Or will he surprise, get accustomed to the political scene and speak its language?
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