These are the five new members on the Likud list for the upcoming election.
There are ten members on the Likud list for the upcoming election in realistic places who did not serve in the previous Knesset, not including three spots reserved for personal choices by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The first five – Danny Danon, Eliyahu Revivo, Nissim Vaturi, Shalom Danino and Tally Gotliv – were introduced in Monday’s Jerusalem Post. The following are the remaining five.
The other five members
Hanoch Milvitzki
Number 26 on the list is lawyer Hanoch Milvitzki, representative of the Dan region. Milvitzki, 49, served as the Deputy Mayor of Petah Tikva. He is an expert on construction and urban planning laws and served in the past as a special advisor to the Likud regarding the Committee to Appointing Judges, and as chief of staff of the Finance Ministry’s Director-General. He is the leader of the “Unify the Nation” group of Likud members, which includes over 5,500 members and views unity as a national strategic interest.
The “unify the nation” group members have something else in common – they belong to a spiritual movement called “Kabalah La’am,” or “Kabbala for the Nation”. Milvitzki is a member of the group and serves as its legal advisor. The group has been defined by people who left it as a cult centered around its leader, Michael Laitman. Milvitzki was accused of pressuring at least two women not to complain about Laitman, who had allegedly manipulated them into having sex with him.
Boaz Bismuth
Number 28 on the list is a former diplomat and journalist Boaz Bismuth, who ran in the national primary and received over 20,000 votes despite it being his first-ever primary run. Over the course of his journalistic career, Bismuth, 57, worked for Maariv, Yedioth Ahronot and eventually as editor-in-chief of Israel Hayom. In 2020 Bismuth became a commentator and panelist for the popular “Ulpan Shishi” on Channel 12 News, a position he filled up until last week. Bismuth also served as Israel’s ambassador to Mauritania between 2004-2008, during which the African country underwent a number of coups, and the Israeli embassy itself was attacked by Al-Qaeda in 2008. Bismuth was not hurt in the attack.
As a journalist Bismuth interviewed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, visited Afghanistan, and met with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a conference in Istanbul disguised as a French journalist. Bismuth also interviewed former US president Donald Trump a number of times.
Eliyahu Dalal
Number 29 on the list is Eliyahu Dalal, representative of the “Mishor Hahof” (Coastal Plain) region. Dalal is currently the Deputy Mayor of Netanya, and served in the past as head of a subcommittee on planning and construction in the Netanya municipality, as well as CEO of the municipality and CEO of the “Netanya Development and Tourism Company.”
Dalal beat out lawyer Shai Galili, the Likud’s internal ombudsman who has not refrained in recent years from criticizing the party, including moves carried out by Netanyahu. Galili on Monday appealed the results of the primary, arguing that he had found proof of discrepancies in some of the ballot boxes.
Dalal also participated in the eighth season of the Israeli cooking show Master Chef but did not pass the audition round.
Dan Illouz
Dan Illouz, just 36 years old, won the 33rd spot reserved for immigrants on the Likud list, beating out three former or current Likud MKs Gadi Yevarkan, Avraham Negosa, and Tali Ploskov.
Illouz is a graduate of McGill University Law School and Hebrew University’s public policy master’s program and made aliyah from Canada 13 years ago. He was elected to the Jerusalem City Council in 2018, resigned from the city council as part of a rotation agreement and then served as the Israeli representative for the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
Ariel Kallner
Ariel Kallner, 42, occupies the 34th spot on the Likud list as the representative of the Haifa region. Kallner had two previous short stints in the Knesset: In the first election of the current cycle, in April 2019, Kallner was elected to the Knesset as number 34 on the Likud list, as the party won 35 seats, but lost his seat in the next election, which was held in September. Kallner re-entered the Knesset in July 2020 after a higher-ranking Likud member resigned from the Knesset as part of the Norwegian law, and served in it until the March 2021 election.
Kallner holds a BA in industrial engineering from the Technion and an MBA from Haifa University. While at the Technion he founded its “Orange Cell,” which opposed Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and also served in the past as chairman of the Likud Youth Movement.