Senior Likud officials said Thursday that Silvan Shalom is working to bring about early elections in order to prevent party leader Benjamin Netanyahu from becoming prime minister.

The officials said that replacing the government without elections would likely place Netanyahu in the prime minister's seat, whereas early elections would allow Shalom to contend for the leadership of the party, and perhaps the leadership of the country.

"Silvan Shalom is harming the Likud party and undermining the realistic possibility of supplanting the government," they said.

	Advertisement

Shalom said Wednesday "I won't allow the Likud to attempt another rancid ploy of political stench that will end up smelling bad and completely failing."

According to the Likud officials, Shalom is undermining both the party and Netanyahu in order to secure the position of prime minister for himself.

Shalom's bid for early elections could foil a maneuver attributed to Netanyahu, who is believed to be attempting to garner the support of 61 MKs for the establishment of a new cabinet headed by him, without elections.

According to Shalom "the Likud must carry out elections instead of going for another rancid ploy, and since, according to all the polls, the public wants elections.

"The Likud mustn't be dragged into political purchasing and selling maneuvers of buying people off," he added. "We mustn't return to those places."

Netanyahu's associates said Thursday that Netanyahu is not putting together a 61 MK coalition, the number of MKs required to replace the government, and not initiating talks or promoting the move.

"Netanyahu is in favor of holding elections, as the public desires, and he is working towards this in conjunction with the rest of the Likud," the associated said.

However, Netanyahu announced recently that he is holding talks with Kadima MKs, who split from the Likud before the last elections, regarding their return to Likud.

Shalom also said Thursday that early elections are the best solution because "you can't run a country with 12 MKs." Other Likud MKs said that Netanyahu had made a mistake in revealing the talks he had held with Kadima members and in boasting about it. They said that the break within the Likud is portraying the party leader as an impatient "wheeler dealer."

Likud sources estimate that it will be very difficult to entice 10 Kadima MKs to return to Likud - the minimum number of MKs required in order to split the Kadima party - because the Likud cannot possibly guarantee a realistic seat in the Knesset to so many people and also because the success of the maneuver also depends on the support of current coalition members Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu.

Shalom, who submitted a bill to disband the Knesset some six months ago, said that the Likud has an opportunity to mobilize the entire public, in cooperation with movements outside the parliament, and put pressure on the Knesset to hold early elections, rather than holding on to their seats.

Meanwhile, Labor party's Ami Ayalon said that if he is elected party leader he will try to gain the support of the 61 MKs necessary for a constructive vote of no-confidence which would allow him to head an alternative government without disbanding the Knesset. The maneuver Ayalon is seeking, which has been brought up in closed talks in recent days, is identical to the move attributed to Netanyahu. Ayalon explained that as opposed to the Likud, which has only 12 mandates, Labor, with 19 mandates, has a good chance of gaining the necessary support for replacing the government.

It appears that Ayalon is planning to use this message in his campaign for Labor leadership in order to differentiate himself from his competitor for the post, Ehud Barak, who is not a member of Knesset and cannot become prime minister without elections.