Netanyahu Names Reserved Slots for Likud List Ahead of Elections
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced reserved slots for Likud, including wounded soldier Elisha Medan, activist Talyk Guili, attorney David Peter, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, and former MK Eli Goldschmidt.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a series of reserved slots for the Likud party list, hours before the deadline for submitting party lists, following internal pressure. Among the new figures added to the electoral slate are wounded reserve soldier Elisha Medan, activist Talyk Guili, attorney David Peter, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, and former Labor MK Eli Goldschmidt.
New Figures on the Likud Slate
Elisha Medan, who was reserved for the 11th spot, is a reserve combat soldier and one of the founders of the community of Avigail in the South Hebron Hills. He was critically wounded during the Swords of Iron war in an operational activity in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, an incident in which four of his comrades-in-arms fell and Medan lost both of his legs. Medan is the son of Rabbi Yaakov Medan, one of the heads of the Har Etzion Yeshiva. Following his rehabilitation process at the Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv, Medan was chosen to light a torch at the 2025 Independence Day ceremony. The Likud party stated that Medan's rehabilitation has become a symbol of determination.
Talyk Guili, the mother of the late Yasam (Special Patrol Unit) combat officer Master Sgt. Rany Guili, was reserved for the 9th spot on the Likud list. Rany fell on October 7 after going out to fight despite a prior injury, saving many lives before he was killed and his body was abducted to Gaza. His body was later returned to Israel as part of Operation Brave Heart conducted by the security forces. Guili has become a prominent public activist since the beginning of the war.
Attorney David Peter, a Channel 14 panelist and researcher at the Kohelet Policy Forum, was also reserved by Netanyahu. Peter, a jurist and the son of Holocaust survivors, was born in Hungary and immigrated to Israel at the age of one and a half. He is identified with conservative positions regarding the judicial system and represented Likud in several legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in recent years.
Security and Public Figures Join the Ranks
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder of the Habithonistim (Israel's Defense and Security Forum) movement, was reserved for the list. Avivi served in senior IDF positions, including deputy comptroller of the defense establishment, head of the IDF Chief of Staff's bureau, deputy commander of the Gaza Division, and commander of the Sagi Brigade. The Likud stated that Avivi and the Habithonistim support Prime Minister Netanyahu's security doctrine, which places the principles of decisive victory, initiative, and Israel's security independence at the center.
Eli Goldschmidt, a former Knesset member for the Labor Party who served as the chair of the Labor faction in the 14th Knesset and chair of the Finance Committee in the 15th Knesset, was also reserved for the Likud list. After years of living in Kibbutz Zikim on the Gaza border and later in Sderot, Goldschmidt announced following the events of October 7 that he had experienced an "awakening," changed his political and security positions, and now supports the positions of Netanyahu, Likud, and the national camp.
Meanwhile, Channel 14 reported that media figure Yaakov Bardugo is in talks to join the top ten on the list. Netanyahu has a clause that allows him to reserve an additional candidate outside the quota, as part of the merger with New Hope.
