Likud veteran Yuli Edelstein quits after draft-law clash with Netanyahu

Knesset member Yuli Edelstein announced Friday that he intends to leave the Likud party, delivering a major political surprise after years as one of the ruling party’s most senior figures. “I do not intend to run in the Likud primaries. I am setting out on a new path,” Edelstein said. “This is a very hard sentence to say,” he added in an excerpt from an interview with Channel 12 that was released Friday afternoon. “There is the Likud faction we just spoke about, but there are also those friends who are hearing what I am saying now, by surprise, and asking, ‘What is Yuli doing? We supported him for decades, we would have supported him this time too. Why is he doing this?’” Edelstein, 67, has been a member of Likud since his former party, Yisrael BaAliyah, merged with it in 2003. For years, he was considered one of Likud’s senior officials and served as Knesset speaker for seven years, from 2013 to 2020. In the outgoing Knesset, Edelstein served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. But last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removed him from the post after he refused to advance a draft exemption bill for yeshiva students, amid pressure from Haredi parties to oust him. Since his removal, Edelstein has continued to act independently. Earlier this week, he voted against the “Basic Law: Torah Study” bill currently being advanced by the coalition as part of an agreement between Netanyahu and the Haredi parties, first revealed by ynet.