Press thumbs down for Netanyahu

The announcement by Binyamin Netanyahu that he will challenge Ariel Sharon for the leadership of Israel's governing Likud party leaves newspapers distinctly unimpressed.

Several commentators believe it is bad news for Likud and raise doubts about Mr Netanyahu's political credentials and the calibre of his supporters.

Some also question why Mr Netanyahu waited until after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip - which he criticised - before making his move.

Editorial in Yediot Aharonot

A thousand firemen will not put out the blaze in the Likud whose split was ceremoniously declared yesterday. Netanyahu and Sharon, two ruthless leaders, have set off on a road at the end of which one will hoist the white flag and then he will be run over. Under Netanyahu the Likud will return to what it used to be: a party of the right that does not take into consideration the emerging reality around it and leads us all into needless struggles.

Dan Margalit in Maariv

His press conference showed that he has a difficult problem. In order to unite the orange people [the settlers] behind him he needs par excellence rightist rhetoric, but if he continues with it for long... he will lose the Israeli centre. If this centre returns to Shimon Peres in the Labour Party and if polls show that Netanyahu cannot form a government, then he will not win the Likud leadership.

Gideon Samet in Haaretz

Netanyahu, in another version of a US-style election campaign, declared "I am ready". According to the polls that he likes so much, however, it seems that the vast majority of people outside the crumbling walls of the Likud are not really ready for him.

Sima Kadmon in Yediot Aharonot

Will the man who turned even the announcement of his candidacy into a scuffle be the one to bring peace and security?... Perhaps Netanyahu yesterday made a small step on his way to the Likud leadership. His road to the premiership is still very long.

Ben Kaspit in Maariv

The story of Netanyahu is the style; the uncontrollable impulse. His criticism of the disengagement is legitimate... The thing is that he should have come out with it much earlier when this would still have made a difference.

Yossi Verter in Haaretz

What, it took him two and a half years to figure out that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was giving a green light to terror? And is it appropriate for Netanyahu to speak of rooting out corruption when his partners on the dais included three people implicated in serious scandals? And if Sharon's trampling of Likud principles pained Netanyahu so deeply, why didn't he quit after the poll of Likud members on the disengagement?

Gil Hoffman in Jerusalem Post

No matter who wins the leadership battle, when it's all over the nation will desperately need a shower. This race is going to be down-and-dirty mud wrestling between two candidates who hate each other and will do anything possible to ensure that the other will not be the next prime minister.

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