While parts of the Likud leadership are working to undermine Ofer Winter in hopes of forcing him out of the race, voices within the party are sounding the opposite alarm: the strategy could prove dangerous for the right-wing bloc as a whole.
According to a report by Maariv correspondent Anna Barsky, Likud sources fear that if Winter does not withdraw, ongoing attacks will only weaken him and increase the number of votes that fall below the electoral threshold. They warn that this would cost the right critical mandates that would simply vanish.
These sources believe that under current conditions, it would be much better to stop all attacks against him entirely, allow him to establish himself safely above the threshold, and even sign a surplus-vote agreement with his party.
