The aide, Eyal Arad, spoke this morning with Army Radio. He was campaign manager of the Centrist party in the 1999 elections, and before that served as Binyamin Netanyahu's press aide for several years. Arad said that if the party votes to "throw Sharon out," then he will in fact consider himself thrown out.
Arad criticized the "media spins" of his former boss, Netanyahu, who plans to run against Sharon for Likud Party leader in the party's upcoming primaries.
The date of those primaries is the main issue of Likud contention at present. Netanyahu, bolstered by the support of another candidate, MK Uzi Landau, wants to move up the date from next April to this coming November. Sharon, on the other hand, has no interest in being challenged earlier than necessary. The 3,000-member Likud Central Committee is set to vote on when to hold the primaries early next week.
Netanyahu and Landau have raised the charge that Sharon plans to quit the party if he does not win the leadership race. Several of Sharon's leading supporters have not categorically denied the accusation, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have even said that they will stick with Sharon regardless of which political party he leads.
Sharon returned from New York this week with the goal of dispelling the rumors. He did not succeed, however. In a meeting with Likud members last night, he said only that he has no plans to quit the party as he intends to win the race for party leader. He did not say what he would do if he loses, however.
His aide Eyal Arad was clearer. Speaking on Army Radio this morning, Arad said, "The Prime Minister doesn't want to leave the Likud. But if they throw him out, then apparently he has no choice but to be thrown out."
Minister Yisrael Katz and MKs Gideon Saar and Gila Gamliel all said today that they would support the Netanyahu/Landau bid to move up the primaries, explaining that Sharon did not commit himself to respect party decisions and remain in the party under all circumstances. "The Prime Minister must make it unambiguously clear that he will respect the Committee's decisions," MK Gamliel said. "Honoring only those decisions with which he agrees does not jibe with democratic principles."
Education Minister Limor Livnat called for a compromise date today, but according to party rules, it cannot be officially accepted unless it is proposed by the party chairman himself - Ariel Sharon. Sharon has said he will accept no compromises on the date of the primaries.