Netanyahu Wins Likud Race, Eyes PM Role

Likud Party leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu votes at the party's primary elections, in Jerusalem, Tuesday. Aug. 14, 2007. Members of Israel's hardline Likud party voted in a leadership primary Tuesday, with Netanyahu assured of victory but concerned a strong showing by settler extremists could embarrass him and the party.(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner) (Sebastian Scheiner - AP)

JERUSALEM -- Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh off a commanding election win as leader of Israel's hardline Likud Party, vowed Wednesday to shift his efforts toward reclaiming his old job as prime minister.

Netanyahu faced a relatively strong challenge from Moshe Feiglin, a radical West Bank settler, whose performance in Tuesday's primary could help shore up the extreme right wing of the party and hurt Netanyahu's efforts to rehabilitate Likud after it was battered in national elections last year.

Recent polls have crowned Netanyahu, Likud's leader since late 2005, as the front-runner for Israel's top job.

Netanyahu captured 73 percent of the vote to Feiglin's 23 percent, according to final results party officials released early Wednesday. A third candidate, Danny Danon, trailed with 3.5 percent.

Netanyahu's victory was a foregone conclusion after he announced the elections on short notice, eliminating a run by his chief internal rival, former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who said he didn't have enough time to campaign.

In his victory speech, Netanyahu made it clear that the race was a dress rehearsal for a much bigger contest.

"Tonight the internal contest ended, and as of tomorrow, we will focus our efforts on bringing a new leadership to Israel," Netanyahu told dozens of cheering supporters.

A telegenic politician and self-described hawk, the M.I.T.-educated Netanyahu speaks flawless, American-accented English. He's tough on defense issues and hands-off on the economy, but in recent months has been trying to position himself in the political center to try to lure moderate voters.

"It's clear that Netanyahu is a right-wing man, but a right-wing man who is always winking at the center," political commentator Hanan Crystal said Tuesday.

Feiglin's platform calls for barring Arabs from Israel's parliament, encouraging non-Jews to emigrate and pulling Israel out of the United Nations. He is viewed as extreme even by many Israeli settlers.

Israeli general elections are scheduled for 2010, but could be earlier if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's fractious coalition government falls apart, or if Olmert himself _ facing low poll numbers and a series of legal woes _ leaves office. Current polls show Netanyahu's main rival would be the Labor Party's Ehud Barak, who unseated Netanyahu as prime minister in 1999.

With many Israelis on summer holiday, turnout among the nearly 100,000 Likud members was slightly under 40 percent. In an effort to encourage Likud members to vote, Netanyahu extended the polling until 11 p.m. and stationed ballot boxes at hotels around the country.