Netanyahu was elected on Monday to lead the party, six and a half years after he resigned the same position. On May 17, 1999, as incumbent Prime Minister, he lost the national election to Ehud Barak, and then immediately announced that he was stepping down from the party leadership. He was replaced soon after by Ariel Sharon.
Following his victory on Monday night, Netanyahu met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, his former challenger - some say he still presents a threat - for three hours on Tuesday. Netanyahu offered Shalom the #2 spot on the list of Knesset candidates for the upcoming election. The party's constitution, which states that candidates for all positions must be chosen in internal elections, must be changed in order to allow this, but objectors to such a move are expected to be few.
Netanyahu announced that Shalom, who opposed the Disengagement from Gaza only when it was first announced, will be "at my side in setting the Likud agenda."
Finance Minister Ehud Olmert, a personal rival of Netanyahu and a leading figure in Ariel Sharon's Kadima party, said today that the Likud - his former party - is now "an extremist group of Netanyahu, Landau and Feiglin."
Upon arriving today at Metzudat Ze'ev - the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv - Netanyahu said, "The attempts to portray us [the Likud] as an extremist marginal party are total nonsense, and they must be stopped... we must burn away the extremist margins."
Netanyahu said he intends to drive out of the party all of its "criminal and negative elements." Many assume that he is referring to Moshe Feiglin and the Jewish Leadership faction.
Netanyahu was asked, but did not respond to, a question about whether he was referring to MKs Yechiel Chazan, Naomi Blumental and Michael Gorolovsky - all of whom face criminal charges on various matters.
The Jewish Leadership faction notes that many Likud MKs, such as Gilad Erdan, Ayoub Kara, Michael Ratzon and others, have taken part in its gatherings in the past.
A major issue facing the Likud is whether its Cabinet ministers should resign from the government or not. Netanyahu, who resigned shortly before the implementation of the expulsion from Gaza, says that Ministers Shalom, Livnat, Naveh and Katz should quit, in order to be able to attack the present government from without. The ministers themselves, however, feel there is no reason to rush to give up their Cabinet positions. The matter has not yet been resolved.