Netanyahu to run for office again, Likud party announces

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will run for office again in the election later this year, his Likud party has announced.

On Tuesday, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl claimed that US President Donald Trump told him he was not sure if Netanyahu should seek another term.

“He’s had an amazing career. Does he want to continue?” the president said as cited by Karl.

According to the journalist, Trump described Netanyahu as “a wartime prime minister” and insisted that “we will very shortly win the war [against Iran] one way or the other.”

Likud responded to the report by issuing a short statement on X on Wednesday, stating that “Prime Minister Netanyahu will run in the upcoming elections – and with God’s help, he will win.”

Netanyahu, 76, who returned as prime minister in December 2022 after holding office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, has also previously voiced plans to take part in the election.

The date for the vote has not been officially announced, but according to Israeli laws it should be held before October 27. It will be the first election in the country since it launched its military operation in Gaza in response to a deadly incursion by Palestinian armed group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

A poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Tuesday suggested that 61% of Israelis do not want Netanyahu to run for office again. The same number of respondents also said that they were in favor of introducing a two-term limit for future prime ministers.

Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for corruption, has faced harsh criticism recently from his political opponents in Israel over the handling of multiple conflicts under his leadership.

They argue that the prime minister has failed to achieve his goals of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, neutralizing Hezbollah in Lebanon or containing Iran, despite his claims to the contrary.

Relations between Trump and Netanyahu have also apparently soured, with the US president acknowledging that he called the Israeli PM “f***ing crazy” during a heated phone call in early June over his reluctance to end attacks on Lebanon during Washington’s negotiations with Tehran.