As the Likud looks forward to a very tense race between the incumbent Ariel Sharon and former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for leadership of the party - and likely future Prime Ministership - some party members are trying to find a way around the fight. MK Eli Cohen said this morning that Sharon and Netanyahu should agree to a rotation agreement under which Sharon would serve as party leader for three years and Netanyahu for the remaining year. "I assume that neither of the two will agree to this idea," Cohen told Arutz-7's Emanuel Shilo today, "and that's why I am turning to Likud members and asking them to push for it. My goal is that the voters should pressure both of them to come to some sort of an agreement, because this will be best for the people of Israel." Asked to explain his numbers, Cohen said, "I give Sharon three years because he's the leader, he's leading in the polls, and he's in the middle of an initiative, so let's give him a chance to finish... In any event, I would assume that Sharon and Netanyahu will have to negotiate the exact terms..."
MK Yisrael Katz, who heads the Netanyahu camp in the Likud, dismissed the idea out of hand. "It's anti-democratic," he said. "A person who is not elected owes nothing to the party's voters. In addition, it's not true that the contest between them will harm the party; elections are what democracy is all about. Would we accept an agreement between Labor and Likud not to hold elections and to have a rotation agreement to lead the country?"
MK Yisrael Katz, who heads the Netanyahu camp in the Likud, dismissed the idea out of hand. "It's anti-democratic," he said. "A person who is not elected owes nothing to the party's voters. In addition, it's not true that the contest between them will harm the party; elections are what democracy is all about. Would we accept an agreement between Labor and Likud not to hold elections and to have a rotation agreement to lead the country?"