Netanyahu considers reserving a New Hope candidate slot and thereby pushing Barkat out

With 98% of the votes counted in the Likud primaries, Nir Barkat leads Ze'ev Elkin by a few hundred votes for the last realistic 24th spot. However, the report says Netanyahu is considering reserving the 24th slot for New Hope's Michel Buskila, a move that would push Barkat to 32nd place and out of the Knesset, similar to the Feiglin precedent from 2009.

In the final stages of vote counting in the Likud primaries, the survival battle for the last realistic spot on the national list is reaching a boiling point. After 98% of the votes were counted, Minister Nir Barkat, who spent years at the top of the party, has fallen to the third tier and is waging a rear-guard battle against Ze'ev Elkin for the 24th spot, leading by only a few hundred votes. However, the report says the real threat to his position is not the ballots: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a strategic reservation of New Hope's Knesset member Michel Buskila in the 24th spot. Such a move bypassing the primaries would create a domino effect and push Barkat to 32nd place, an area that almost certainly means parting ways with the next Knesset. The report mentions the precedent from 2009, when Netanyahu invented a legal interpretation of the regulations to push Moshe Feiglin out of that exact slot, and notes that the scenario may repeat itself with a slight variation.