Political drama: Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced this evening (Tuesday) the dissolution of the partnership with the state camp and his demand to join the war cabinet.
Likud also claimed this evening that the statement was not coordinated with Netanyahu and that the issue of Sa’ar’s partnership in the war cabinet has not yet been examined. However, Likud officials estimate that Netanyahu’s answer will be positive, because Sa’ar is now providing a kind of insurance certificate on the right of the government during the war.
Sa’ar intends to re-establish a new hope as an independent faction that will express, according to him, “the national-state worldview”. Gantz responded with the words “Thank you and good luck.”
“I respect my friends, the representatives of the state camp in the war cabinet,” said Sa’ar, referring to Bnei Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, “but unfortunately they do not express the voice, the positions and the emphases that I would bring there. Therefore, on your behalf, I express here our demand to join to the war cabinet and to be part of the influence on policy,” he noted. The words were said as part of an evening of activists of his party to conclude the election campaign for local authorities.
storm. Saying goodbye to Gantz and Meisenkot, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Right insurance certificate for the government
Sa’ar’s energetic message comes following this move has been brewing for him for many months. The dispute, he made clear to his partners just before the statement this evening, is on ideological grounds.
The question that arises is whether he recognizes elections on the horizon and this is the reason for the timing of the break from the parent party. With new hope, they said this evening that Sa’ar is not coordinated with the Likud and that he does not intend to join the party he left, but to build an alternative party that will lead the right.
The reaction of the state camp and the curfew of interviews there this evening show the magnitude of the surprise. Sa’ar did not give them too much time to study the new decision, nor the challenge to their partnership in the war cabinet.
An official in the War Cabinet told “Israel Hayom” that adding another member to the War Cabinet will not be easy from a coalition point of view. At the door, requests are also awaited from Otzma Yehudit and religious Zionism. “How will Sa’ar enter while Smotrich remains outside”?
Sa’ar surely hopes that his sharp separation from the arms of Gantz and Eisenkot will work well in the memory of the right-wing voters following he was a guest of honor in demonstrations once morest the government and legal reform alongside Shakma Bresler and Yair Lapid over the past year. Sa’ar tries to dampen this partnership throughout the months of the war and makes sure to distinguish himself from the state camp, including by appearing at government meetings on a weekly basis, in contrast to Blue and White representatives. This move, which ended with membership in the cabinet as a right-wing representative, should complete Sa’ar’s turn away from the images of the demonstrations in Kaplan.
Scattered signs on the weekend
As a reminder, last Friday an interview with Sa’ar was published in “Israel Hayom”, in which he criticized his party partners (and the government) for the way the campaign was conducted. “We must go back to the drawing board and do things differently,” said the minister.
In an interview, Sa’ar was asked if it is possible to declare the death of the state camp, and he replied: “I will not do it, because I did not plan to do so. In the future, each party will have to make decisions regarding continuing its path. I cannot deny that in the current situation, where the main issue is the political issues And security, there are gaps between us from time to time.”
Sa’ar at the press conference, photo: Raanan Cohen
Regarding a possible return to the Likud, Sa’ar said: “No. I left the Likud on December 8, 2020. Everything I said then is even more true today. A new hope is a state-right party, which expresses the values of the Likud as they were during the time of Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin. And I will continue to lead her in this way.”
The split will be confirmed tomorrow
The Knesset committee will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) evening, following the vote on the budget, in order to approve the split.
The State Camp Party, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Sa’ar also said: “Our voice, the voice of the state right is essential today more than ever. Israel today needs an alternative of the state right. If we don’t lead it – I don’t see anyone else who can do it. That’s why I came to the decision: following consultation and on the opinion of my friends to end the partnership with the Blue and White party and immediately re-establish the New Hope faction – the state right in the Knesset as an independent faction that will clearly express our national state worldview.”
“I thank my sons and my children and the other friends for the period of joint work and believe that there will be days when we will cooperate in the future as two separate political frameworks. From this moment on, I intend to act and join us with additional political forces that will lead to the formation of an alternative, and I emphasize an alternative of a strong political force of the right of the state, as public Rahav wishes it would happen,” concluded Sa’ar.
“We have no intention of going to Likud”
Sources in New Hope said this evening (Tuesday): “We were not counted in the state camp. We saw Gantz’s behavior and our voice on the right was not expressed. So we will be in the war cabinet and have an impact.” They also clarified: “We have no intention of going to Likud or teaming up with Netanyahu. We didn’t want him to be prime minister before the war – and we certainly don’t want him to be prime minister following the war.”
The chairman of the state camp Gantz, who heard regarding this separation for the first time from the media and not from Sa’ar, responded to Sa’ar’s announcement with a short tweet: “Thank you and good luck.”
thank you and good luck.
— Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) March 12, 2024
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