Netanyahu skips small Likud Central Committee gathering affirming him as leader
Only a couple hundred Central Committee members were reportedly present out of the total 3,800
Israel's Prime Minister and Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu skipped Thursday's meeting of the party's Central Committee, which affirmed him as its one and only leader.
The gathering followed Netanyahu's decision to scrap a snap Likud leadership vote designed to show others that a coup within his party was impossible.
His rival Gideon Sa'ar apparently welcomed the idea, tweeting: "I am ready".
While the event was closed to the press, the imagery released suggests a very small attendance, with only a couple hundred members present out of the total 3,800.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu's posture as the only prime minister the party sees spearheading the government was affirmed by a decisive majority of the votes, Likud said.
Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter to thank the Likud Central Committee members for their "overwhelming support".
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The gathering came amid an apparent deadlock on the Israeli political scene that followed September's vote, in which Likud's right-wing bloc went neck-to-neck with the Blue and White alliance led by Benny Gantz.
With Netanyahu backed by 55 members of Knesset (the Israeli parliament) and Gantz by 54, neither has a clear path to a 61-strong majority.
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