Strategic adviser and political commentator Barak Seri argued on Monday, in an interview with 103FM ahead of Likud party primaries, that independent voters now account for 60 to 70 percent of the vote in Israeli elections, reversing what he described as a previous era in which deal-based blocs controlled roughly 60 percent.
Analyst says independent voters now drive Likud primaries as Netanyahu briefings against members alleged
Strategic adviser and political commentator Barak Seri argued on Monday, in an interview with 103FM ahead of Likud party primaries, that independent voters now account for 60 to 70 percent of the vote in Israeli elections, reversing what he described as a previous era in which deal-based blocs controlled roughly 60 percent.
Seri claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had worked in recent days to weaken the standing of Likud members Nir Barkat, David Bitan, and Tally Gotliv within the party list, saying that if Netanyahu succeeds in pushing them lower, it would demonstrate significant influence over independent voters.
Seri linked a public dispute between Yinon Magal and Gotliv, which erupted on Sunday, to what he described as briefings from Netanyahu's office. He said Magal had claimed to receive information from people he described as closest to the prime minister, and that Netanyahu's office had asserted placing Gotliv and May Golan high on the list would cost Likud two to three seats. Gotliv denied the claims and made personal accusations against Magal, and Golan followed her position, according to Seri.
Seri said the sequence began after an interview he conducted on Radio 103FM with Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which Ben-Gvir said four ministers and four MKs had approached him, which Seri said caused what he described as panic in Netanyahu's office.
On Channel 14, Seri addressed a separate incident in which the channel's Sunday evening news broadcast aired a report of a reporter approaching and questioning a woman on the street who turned out to be a neighbor of former IDF Military Advocate-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, not Tomer-Yerushalmi herself. The clip became widely circulated after the mistaken identity was identified. Seri said the report passed through researchers, editors, and an assignment desk before appearing as the opening item on the broadcast, and criticized both the report and Channel 14's subsequent response as failing to offer a straightforward apology.
- The source does not state Netanyahu's response to or denial of the claim that he briefed journalists against Gotliv, Barkat, or Bitan.
- The source does not include any statement from Gotliv, Magal, Golan, Barkat, or Bitan beyond Seri's account of their dispute.
- The source does not include Channel 14's full response to the mistaken-identity incident, only Seri's characterization of it.
- The source does not state what Tomer-Yerushalmi's neighbor said during the Channel 14 encounter or afterward.
- The source does not state when the Likud primaries are scheduled to take place.
- The source does not name the polls Netanyahu is said to have cited regarding Gotliv and Golan, or who conducted them.
Read the original at The Jerusalem Post