Today is the second day of the Likud convention, at which the delegates are to vote to determine the date of the upcoming party primaries. Last night's events featured booing of many of the party leaders and the mysterious detaching of the microphone just seconds after Prime Minister Sharon began his speech.
In today's vote, the camp led by MKs Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau is in favor of moving up the date up to this coming November. The Ariel Sharon camp, on the other hand, wants to keep the date as is, some time next April.
It is no coincidence that Netanyahu and Landau both wish to replace Sharon as party leader, and thus wish to advance the date as much as possible.
Sharon, with good reason, says he sees the vote as a move to "depose" him, and has not ruled out plans to quit the party if he in fact loses today's vote. This, despite many calls for him to promise to remain in the party under all circumstances. If he in fact quits, it is not clear if he will retire from politics, or will rather start a new party. Some polls have predicted that such a party would do well in national elections - though past experience has shown that early poll results for new parties are much more optimistic than later showings.
A team of three police investigators has been appointed to find out who cut off the microphone at the beginning of Sharon's speech. The guilty party faces three years in prison for the crime of purposeful damage.
It happened twice: When the Prime Minister first got up to speak, he found himself standing awkwardly silent when he saw that the mike didn't work. He sat down, then got up again when the electricity was restored, began to speak, and again the electricity fell. This time he sat down for good.
The Sharon camp, of course, accuses the Netanyahu-Landau camp of preventing the Prime Minister from speaking. Amir Gilad, however, Netanyahu's spokesman, charged this morning on Israel Radio that Sharon's own people turned off his mike as a "dirty trick" in order to make the Netanyahu camp look bad.
The Likud party spokesman announced that despite the raucous events of last night, today's vote would be held as scheduled. The polls will be open until 10 PM, and preliminary results should be known by midnight.
Before the microphone incident, Sharon supporters disturbed Netanyahu's entire speech, leading Netanyahu fans to demonstratively leave the hall en masse.
"The real question facing us is just this," Netanyahu said: "What is our way? Are we the Likud, or are we left of Meretz? I say this because [then-Labor Party leader Amram] Mitzna said [in the last election campaign] he would evacuate individual isolated communities, while [Meretz leader] Yossi Beilin said he would evacuate all of Gaza in exchange for a peace agreement. Only here in the Likud do we evacuate up to the very last centimeter [in a unilateral manner], in total opposition to our promises to our voters."
Netanyahu said that Israel received nothing for the uprooting of the communities in Gaza. "This move did not bring peace closer, nor did it strengthen our security. Hamas is taking over Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority is essentially liquidated."
MK Uzi Landau ridiculed Sharon's claims that he is being thrown out:
"You claim that you are being deposed, Arik? You make me laugh. You deposed all the voters who gave us 40 Knesset mandate, and you deposed the 100,000 party registrants, and you deposed the Central Committee members who voted in the referendum [against the disengagement]. These are norms that you brought us."
Education Minister Limor Livnat, who had remained neutral until yesterday, announced her support for the proposal to move up the primaries. "In the past few weeks," she told the Central Committee last night, "I made great efforts on behalf of a compromise date for the primaries. But in light of the latest developments, I now call for the primaries to be moved up in order to rebuild the Likud and unify the ranks."
Livnat explained that because Sharon refused to declare that he would not leave the Likud under any circumstances, "my responsibility is for the future of the Likud." She said that Netanyahu should not have proposed moving up the primaries, and Sharon should have accepted a compromise date.
Ministers Meir Sheetrit and Tzippy Livny, who support Sharon, were roundly booed during their speeches.