_a.jpg "Photo: Eli Elgarat")
Bibi: Show criminals the way out
Likud leader Netanyahu addresses party's Central Committee, says Likud must change its tainted image; meanwhile, Committee approves proposal to give Silvan Shalom second spot on party list
The postponement is needed to introduce a change in the Likud charter aimed at banning candidates with criminal records from running in the primaries, a move widely seen as an attempt to keep Moshe Feiglin out of the party list.
Addressing the convention, Netanyahu said that "today, the Likud is setting out on a path of renewal. Today, we are all setting out on a path that will better the movement, and will benefit the nation and the country."
"As a first step, we must do two vital things that have been lacking in our movement in recent years. First, we must close ranks – there are no camps, and no factions. We are one camp, and in order to express this unity, I ask you to answer my call to choose our friend Silvan Shalom for second place in the Likud's Knesset list," Bibi told those in attendance.
'Show criminals way out'
"The second thing is cleaning up our movement. In recent years - and only in recent years - the Likud's name has been tainted. Criminal elements have entered our movement. Their number may be marginal, miniscule even – but the damage they have caused is great. This minority has stained the name of our movement, the name of our loyal activists, and the tens of thousands of members, who are honest people," Netanyahu said.
"As we set out on our new path, we must show these criminal elements the way out. Their place is not among us. They can go elsewhere, to another party," the Likud chairman declared.
"Therefore, in six days I will present a motion, according to which every person who has been convicted of a criminal offense that carries disgrace with it will not be allowed to run for a place in the party. Not as a Committee member, and not as a Knesset member. We are cleaning out our ranks, not just from people who have erred, but from rejected norms. And I know that I speak in your names, because we want a clean movement…like we learned from Menachem Begin. The point of the change in the law is to cleanse the Likud of criminal elements, period," he said.
Bibi pledges to help the poor
Turning his attention to the economy, Netanyahu spoke about his achievements as a finance minister and noted that "instead of adding 200,000 Israeli's to the unemployment cycle, as everyone predicted, 200,000 Israelis joined the ranks of the employed."
The State's coffered were filled up with billions of shekels as a result of his proper economic policies, BIbi noted, adding that today the government can help weak sectors of society.
"Today, there are budgets, and we can and should help the weak more," he said. "That's the first thing I'll be doing as a prime minister."
In an attempted to elicit the support of soldiers, the Likud chairman also promised to provide discharged troops with "spacious apartments" in the south of the country.
"Others merely talk, but only we will remove people from poverty," he said.
