Likud members at their election season openin
Likud members at their election season openinYoni Kempinski

A special meeting of Likud members will take place Wednesday at the party's headquarters in Tel Aviv. The meeting was called by members of the party's Central Committee, in order to discuss the events of the last elections and whether the Likud “learned its lessons” from the election's results.

According to Shevach Stern, chairman of the Likud in the Binyamin region, told Arutz Sheva that many of those lessons had passed over the heads of party leaders. “This is not about the coalition negotiations, although there is what to discuss in this area as well,” said Stern. “This is about the events that have occurred over the past year, although in retrospect this could be connected to the negotiations as well.”

The Likud did far more poorly than expected, Stern said, and the party needed to understand why. Unfortunately, no one had picked up on those lessons yet. A committee set up a year ago to examine potential campaign problems “did not meet even once,” Stern said. “We have many things to discuss, like the primaries which, at least in Judea and Samaria, were included many negative statements against rabbis. And then there was the election itself, in which the Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu lost 25% of its power. Until now no one has asked these questions, let alone had them answered,” Stern said.

Also to be discussed is the fact that the Likud has veered from its platform, Stern said, “among other things the coalition agreement with Tzippy Livni, and the Likud's agreement to the two-state solution. Many of the activists are disappointed and tired over many of these things. There are rumors also that the party is millions of shekels in debt, spent on PR that has just damaged the party. No one has stopped to ask what happened.

“So we decided to ask,” Stern said. “We, the activists, are taking the initiative and calling this meeting to demonstrate our frustration, and to make recommendations on how to restore the Likud to its proper path. We hope the meeting will be an important step in this direction,” he added.