US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV5013

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 005013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/12/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, KWBG, IS, GOI INTERNAL, GAZA DISENGAGEMENT 
SUBJECT: LIKUD INTERNAL STORM POSTPONED UNTIL AFTER 
DISENGAGEMENT 
 
REF: TEL AVIV 4946 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Norman Olsen for reasons 1.4 (b,d). 
 
(C) The Likud internal court has given Prime Minister Sharon 
at least a month of political breathing space by rejecting 
August 11 a petition by supporters of Binyamin Netanyahu to 
compel the Likud Central Committee to meet and vote on moving 
up Likud Party primaries.  The court instead "asked" Central 
Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi to determine within five 
days when the Central Committee will meet, and decided that 
at that meeting the Central Committee should discuss, but is 
not obligated to vote on, a date for Likud primaries. 
Hanegbi indicated to the media that the meeting would not 
take place until at least after disengagement, which would 
put it sometime in mid to late September, and that it could 
take place before the Jewish holidays begin October 4. 
Central Committee member and Netanyahu supporter David Sharan 
told poloff August 12 that he believes Hanegbi will decide on 
an early October date for the meeting. 
 
 
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