I have learned the lessons. I am ready – Binyamin Netanyahu

Ha'aretz is reporting that Binyamin Netanyahu has announced his candidacy for the chairmanship of the Likud and as a candidate for the premiership.

"The Likud today needs a leader who can unify the ranks, rehabilitate the ruins, and lead the Likud to victory, and who will then lead the state in the spirit of our principles, and believe that I can do that," Netanyahu told a news conference.

"Therefore, I today announce my candidacy for the leadershipmopf then Likud, and for the premiership." The move could set in motion an eventual split in the party, with Sharon bolting the Likud and starting a splinter faction of his own. Netanyahu said Sharon, who founded the party in the early 1970s, had abandoned the path of the Likud, and had adopted the way of the Israeli left.

"Today, the Likud and the state need a leader who will stop granting a tailwind to terrorism, who will stop the spreading criminal corruption, and who will heal the rifts and abysses which opened in the people,"
Netanyahu said.
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Netanyahu declared that the years of his premiershhip were years of prosperity and personal security. "I offer my candidacy not only on the experience of the past," said Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 1996-1999. "The test of every person and every leader is the abiliity to develop, to mature, and to learn from the mistakes of the past.

On Monday, the party's court paved the way for the Netanyahu announcement, when it ruled that the Likud Central Committee would vote on September 26 on a proposal to advance the party's leadership primaries, thereby effectively beginning the process of ousting Sharon as the party's head.

The expected primaries vote represents the first time that any party has tried to oust a serving prime minister as its chairman. It also represents a significant defeat for Sharon, who tried hard to prevent the central committee from convening for this purpose, as early primaries will force him to make decisions about his political future long before he had planned to do so.

One of the myths of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is that it represented the lawful will of the majority of Israelis. In fact, Ariel Sharon won re-election to the Israeli Knesset by campaigning directly against the Labour plan of “disengaging” from Gaza. Furthermore, Sharon refused every plea or opportunity to hold a referendum on the disengagement from Gaza. Whether or not Sharon will survive this challenge to his leadership remains to be seen, but what cannot be denied is. if Sharon’s leadership is rejected by the Likud party membership he will be the sole author of that disengagement.