Economy Minister Nir Barkat allegedly co-led a failed attempt to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through a no-confidence vote immediately following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, Channel 12 news reported on Tuesday.

The network claimed that Barakat led the effort with fellow Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, who left the ruling party last month to form the rival “Unity” faction.

The move, had the pair pulled it off, would have allowed for a constructive vote of no confidence, meaning the Knesset would vote to install a new prime minister without needing to dissolve parliament and call an early election.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Channel 12 said a significant number of Likud lawmakers were aware and supportive of the effort to oust Netanyahu as it was unfolding, but that they were unable to agree on who would lead in his place.

Some lawmakers also offered conditional backing of the plan, the report added, telling Barkat and Edelstein that they would vote to remove Netanyahu from power only if they could be the ones to take his place.

According to Channel 12, after the pair of would-be renegades realized they would struggle to unite lawmakers behind one single candidate, Edelstein proposed forming a temporary unity government, with him as interim prime minister, and then holding an internal leadership primary in which he would not be allowed to stand.

But before the effort could advance any further, Netanyahu caught wind of the intraparty coup attempt and coordinated with select Likud MKs and........

© The Times of Israel