A new affair is roiling senior Likud officials and those close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Channel 14 has learned that amid the party’s primary battles, New Hope chairman Gideon Saar is seeking to trade party funding money—and to that end is demanding the 30th spot on the Likud list for his ally, MK Michel Buskila.
3+Saar returned to the Likud as part of the merger agreement between Likud and New Hope (National Right) signed in March 2025 and approved by the Likud Central Committee in August 2025. He secured his seat in the next Knesset through the first reserved slot among the slots Netanyahu will be granted up to the 15th position.
The agreement between the factions also stipulated that “all current party funding that accumulates, as well as funding for the 26th Knesset elections for National Right, will transfer to Likud after settling obligations and current expenses.” But despite the explicit clause granting the funds to the merged faction, the factions have not actually merged and have not submitted a formal request to the Knesset Committee to approve the merger.
The reason is concern over the possibility rebellious MKs who might be knocked out in the primaries could exploit a loophole in Section 59 of the Knesset Law, which allows them to split off during a faction merger—without being considered “defectors” even if they don’t constitute a third of the faction.
That’s exactly the argument MK Sharren Haskel is making these days. She has petitioned the High Court demanding to be allowed to split from the New Hope faction and receive the funding unit to which she is allegedly entitled by law.
3+Haskel wrote: “The factions enjoy the political, organizational and public fruits of the merger agreement, but refrain from completing the formal stage required by law by submitting a formal merger request to the Knesset Committee, as required by Section 59 of the Knesset Law, thereby thwarting the possibility of implementing the arrangement set forth in the section and harming the petitioner’s rights to receive the funding unit due to her under the Party Funding Law.”
The High Court ruled that the respondents must submit preliminary responses to the petition and the request for an interim order by this coming Sunday, and must clarify whether they intend to submit a request to merge factions in accordance with their agreement.
This involves a significant sum of money. According to recent legislative amendments to the Party Funding Law, for preparation for the upcoming election campaign, New Hope would be entitled to 4 funding units (based on the number of MKs) totaling 1,835,000 shekels, plus 1.4 fixed funding units for the faction. In total: 9,909,000 shekels.
If the High Court approves Haskel’s request, the party would drop from 4 mandates to just 3 mandates and lose a funding unit worth ₪1,835,000 (which would reduce its election budget from ₪9.9 million to ₪8.07 million).
3+Likud, which is already in deficit with heavy debts, is very worried about such a scenario and wants to ensure that New Hope runs as a separate faction—because then the faction itself would receive the funding as well as the additional 1.4 funding units (that every faction receives beyond its number of Knesset members). But Ministers Saar and Elkin want to run as an integral part of the Likud list, so the only MK remaining besides the rebellious Haskel is faction chairman Michel Buskila.
According to senior Likud officials and those in the prime minister’s circle, Saar is exploiting the party’s pressure and in recent days has been trying to demand an additional reserved slot for Buskila in a realistic position in exchange for the faction running separately and transferring the funding money to Likud.
Likud is also concerned that if the court grants Haskel’s demand, MKs like Edelstein and Ilouz might also demand their funding units. At a hearing held in the movement’s court on Friday, David Sharan, acting CEO of the party, warned of massive financial losses to the movement.
3+As we previously reported, following the pressure and Saar’s demand, the prime minister is seeking to approve an additional reserved slot for Buskila beyond the 8 reserved slots allocated to him.
One of the proposals raised in negotiations among those involved in recent days was that the party conference scheduled to convene this coming Monday regarding the bylaws and Netanyahu’s reserved slots proposal would also be required to decide on the merger issue with New Hope.
Saar’s office’s response: There is no basis to these claims.