Israel By Yisrael Price YERUSHALAYIM - Monday, December 28, 2020 at 1:09 pm | י"ג טבת תשפ"א Ayoub Kara, sworn in as a Likud member of Knesset on Monday. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL) MK Yifat Shasha-Biton has won another victory over the Likud party. Shasha-Biton, who successfully opposed her own party’s lockdown policies as chairwoman of the Knesset coronavirus committee, on Monday won a fight against being branded a “deserter” from Likud after she defected to Gideon Saar’s New Hope Party, according to media reports. Had Likud succeeded in the attempt to have the Knesset House Committee label her a deserter, it would have meant that New Hope would be denied public campaign funds that Shasha-Biton would otherwise be entitled to on behalf of her new political home. As Israeli political parties are apportioned funds on the basis of the number of MKs elected in the previous election, Saar’s new party is especially in need of those funds.