Former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen announced on Wednesday that he will run in next week’s Likud primary, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a shorter cooling-off period than usually required, paving the way for him to compete.

Netanyahu welcomed the move, praising the ultranationalist as a “warrior” in a joint video address announcing his candidacy. “Almog, I am glad today to officially welcome you into the ranks of Likud,” he said, confirming that he had waived tenure requirements to allow the newly minted Likud member to run in the August 17 primary.

“This is a warrior, a man of the Negev who chewed my ear off to bring an airport to the Negev. Well done! And he was with us on the decisive vote to pass the budget. I’m not forgetting that. I thank you,” Netanyahu added, referring to Cohen’s push to approve a new airport in the south and his willingness to buck party discipline, as a member of Otzma Yehudit, to help pass the 2025 budget.

Thanking Netanyahu, Cohen called for the “victory of the camp under your leadership.”

The former police officer and restaurateur was elected to the Knesset on Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit slate in 2022. He quickly developed a reputation as a firebrand, calling for opposition leaders to “be put in handcuffs,” screaming at the families of hostages held in Gaza and accusing them of “representing Hamas,” and likening Arab party MKs to sheep, which drew a reprimand from the Knesset Ethics Committee.

He was also the subject of a criminal probe, since closed, into allegations that he used violence against a civilian during his service in the Israel Police over a decade ago.

Beyond clashing with ideological opponents in the Knesset, Cohen also quarreled with his colleagues, repeatedly voting with the coalition despite Otzma Yehudit’s decision to oppose the 2025 state budget — an approach that led the party to slap him with several sanctions, including exclusion from faction meetings and removal from the party’s internal WhatsApp groups.

And as Netanyahu alluded to on Wednesday, his abstention during a committee vote on an important budget-related bill in January 2025 paved the way for the bill to go to the plenum for its second and third readings.

Cohen was also the sole Otzma Yehudit lawmaker not to temporarily resign from the coalition over the cabinet’s approval of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip that month, prompting party leader Ben Gvir to say that........

© The Times of Israel