Netanyahu Sweeps Israel's Likud Race

JERUSALEM-Benjamin Netanyahu swept the race to lead Israel's hardline Likud Party, according to interim results reported Tuesday, boosting his ambitions to reclaim the country's premiership.
Netanyahu,crowned in recent polls as the front-runner for Israel's top job, faced off against far-right West Bank settler Moshe Feiglin, who would bar Arabs from Israel's parliament and favors their emigration. A partial tally gave Netanyahu 73% of the vote to Feiglin's 22%, party executive director Gad Arieli said. World Likud Party Chairman Danny Danon trailed with 4%.While a Netanyahu victory had been all but assured, a strong Feiglin showing could have shored up Israel's extreme right and hurt Netanyahu's efforts to rehabilitate the Likud after it was trounced in elections last year.A telegenic politician and avowed hawk,the M.I.T.-educated Netanyahu speaks flawless,American-accented English.He's tough on defense issues and hands-off on the economy,and in recent months has been trying to position himself somewhere in the political center."It's clear that Netanyahu is a right-wing man, but a right-wing man who is always winking at the center," political commentator Hanan Crystal said Tuesday.Netanyahu was expected to address Likud loyalists early Wednesday.But early in the polling,he made it clear that Tuesday's race was a dress rehearsal for a bigger contest."I call on Likud members to go vote because tonight, when we close the polls,we begin the race for prime minister,"Netanyahu,who has led Likud since late 2005, said as he voted in Jerusalem.Israeli general elections are scheduled for 2010,but could be earlier if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's fractious coalition government falls apart,or if Olmert himself-facing low poll numbers and a series of legal woes-leaves office....
To read more go to:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8R121TO0&show_article=1
As in the days of Noah...