Benjamin Netanyahu promised supporters today he would shift his efforts toward reclaiming his old job as prime minister after comprehensively winning the election for the leadership of Israel's extreme right-wing Likud Party.
Netanyahu faced a relatively strong challenge from Moshe Feiglin, a radical West Bank settler, whose performance in yesterday's primary could help shore up the extreme right wing of the party and hurt Netanyahu's efforts to rehabilitate Likud after it was battered in national elections last year.
Recent polls have crowned Netanyahu, Likud's leader since late 2005, as the front-runner for Israel's top job.
Netanyahu captured 73 percent of the vote to Feiglin's 23 per cent, according to final results party officials released early Wednesday. A third candidate, Danny Danon, trailed with 3.5 per cent.
Netanyahu's victory was a foregone conclusion after he announced the elections on short notice, eliminating a run by his chief internal rival, former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who said he didn't have enough time to campaign.
In his victory speech, Netanyahu made it clear that the race was a dress rehearsal for a much bigger contest.
"Tonight the internal contest ended, and as of tomorrow, we will focus our efforts on bringing a new leadership to Israel," Netanyahu told dozens of cheering supporters.
A telegenic politician and self-described hawk, the M.I.T.-educated Netanyahu speaks flawless, American-accented English. He's tough on defence issues and hands-off on the economy, but in recent months has been trying to position himself in the political center to try to lure moderate voters.
Feiglin's platform calls for barring Arabs from Israel's parliament, encouraging non-Jews to emigrate and pulling Israel out of the United Nations. He is viewed as extreme even by many Israeli settlers.
Israeli general elections are scheduled for 2010, but could be earlier if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's fractious coalition government falls apart, or if Olmert himself - facing low poll numbers and a series of legal woes - leaves office. Current polls show Netanyahu's main rival would be the Labor Party's Ehud Barak, who unseated Netanyahu as prime minister in 1999.
AP