Posted on 08/09/2005 8:02:30 PM PDT by familyop
TEL AVIV, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A leading Israeli rightist said on Tuesday he would seek to topple Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as head of the ruling Likud party before the next general election, due in 2006.
Uzi Landau, leader of a Likud "rebel" faction that tried in vain to scuttle Sharon's Gaza pullout plan in votes of the cabinet and parliament, told a news conference that he would run in Likud's next party primary.
Sharon's main primary rival is expected to be Benjamin Netanyahu, an ex-prime minister who resigned as finance minister on Sunday in protest at the plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip.
But Landau's entry into the leadership race could damage Netanyahu's chances by splitting the hardline nationalist vote within the broad right-wing party.
Ping.
All who are very pro-Israel need to decide early on the issue, I would guess.
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