Folkman quits after Supreme Court approves Likud-Kulanu deal
By GIL HOFFMANThe new Likud posters show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump(photo credit: ANNA AHRONHEIM)
The Likud began a campaign on Sunday portraying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “in another league” from his competition.As part of the campaign, the party hung massive posters from its 15-story headquarters in Tel Aviv featuring Netanyahu with US President Donald Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on three sides of the building. A Likud spokeswoman said that there would be no poster on the fourth side “for now.”Blue and White mocked the posters, putting out their own ads calling Netanyahu “in another league in surrendering to terror.”A group of 40 Russian-speakers planned a demonstration outside the building on Sunday evening to protest the Netanyahu-Putin poster.“We believe that it is extremely inappropriate for an Israeli PM to use photos of a corrupt autocrat in campaign posters, especially considering yesterday’s brutal crackdown on a peaceful demonstration in Moscow,” a spokesman for the protesters said.Meanwhile, the Supreme Court announced on Sunday that it rejected an appeal by Likud MK Ariel Kallner against the May 28 deal signed between Likud and Kulanu to run together in the September 17 election. Kallner argued that the deal was illegal because it was authorized by the wrong Likud body, and not during the time period when mergers were permitted.Many in Likud hoped that the Court would reject the deal, because Kulanu voters shifted their alliances elsewhere and Likud did not gain in the polls. But the Court decided against intervening.Following the decision, Kulanu MK Roy Folkman announced that he would not run for the next Knesset because he did not see himself as part of the Likud, even though he could have run in the 35th slot on the united list.The next candidate on the Kulanu list, former MK and Arad mayor Tali Ploskov, will receive the slot instead, enabling the Likud to field another immigrant from the former Soviet Union, joining Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin.
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