Binyamin Netanyahu
Binyamin NetanyahuMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday instructed coalition chairman MK David Amsalem (Likud) to re-submit the so-called "Sa’ar Law" in the hope of receiving support for the bill from Finance Minister and Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon.

The law, if approved, would oblige the president to assign the task of forming a government to a party chairman.

The explanatory notes to the bill say that the law today "contains a lacuna which may lead to an absurd situation in which the task of forming the government will be imposed on a Knesset member who is not a party leader and who was not a candidate for prime minister during the elections."

"This bill is intended to create certainty in the process of imposing the task of forming the government in such a way as to ensure that the public's will is best expressed by the fact that the task will be assigned to a party leader."

The “Sa’ar Law” was born in the wake of recent statements by associates close to Netanyahu, who claimed that former Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar initiated a move to oust Netanyahu after the elections and to persuade President Reuven Rivlin to task him with heading the next government.

Netanyahu also made similar claims, saying during a birthday party that was recently held for him, "I have known for a few weeks that a former Likud minister is talking to elements in the coalition and has devised some subversive maneuver, that I will bring the Likud to a landslide victory in the elections and then they will make sure that I will not be prime minister, against the will of the Likud voters, against the will of the public, against democracy."

"I walk around the country with you and I see the tremendous support for me, for my wife, a support I cannot remember since I entered politics. That’s why this plot was doomed to failure from the start it because the public does not allow such a thing to happen. But it did expose a loophole in the law and we will think about what to do with it, "added the prime minister.

Sa'ar rejected the claims and stressed that he never acted against the prime minister.

"Netanyahu has a lot of enemies - I am not one of them. I helped him very much in coming to power, and he knows it. He's surrounded by scheming people with bad intentions. It pains me that he consciously chose this path. I said a year-and-a-half ago that I have returned to public activity, and nothing will deter me,” said Sa’ar.

"A field trial is being conducted against me without evidence. I say to Netanyahu - that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow," he added.