A fierce political confrontation unfolded in the early morning hours at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office over the decision to reserve a spot for Yaakov Bardugo on the Likud party's Knesset list, according to a report by journalist Amit Segal.
The report indicates that Netanyahu and his family members sought to place loyalists on the list, including figures from Channel 14, a conservative Israeli news channel, and social media influencers, sometimes referred to as "trench warriors" for their aggressive defense of the prime minister online.
The dispute culminated in a sharp overnight clash between two camps. One faction within Netanyahu's office and the Likud party urged the prime minister to focus on winning back voters who had abandoned the party in the previous term. They argued this could be achieved by including figures such as Elisha Medan and Talik Gvili.
According to these sources, adding Bardugo to the list would undermine this effort and damage attempts to attract those constituencies. Ultimately, the opposing side prevailed, and Netanyahu decided on a compromise approach of "both these and those," reserving spots for both factions.
Journalist Raviv Drucker commented Wednesday on Radio 103FM about the decision to reserve a spot for Bardugo, saying: "I think this is really a mistake. How did it happen? Bardugo demanded it and Netanyahu felt he had no choice. He wants to be a senior minister and he has a lot of leverage over Netanyahu."
