Justice Minister and New Hope chairman Gideon Sa'ar still believes that removing Benjamin Netanyahu from power was in the best interests of Israel's national security, claiming: "Netanyahu's ideology is only Netanyahu."
In an interview with Yehuda Yifrach in Makor Rishon, Sa'ar said that "at this stage of his life, I see Netanyahu as a person who causes damage to Israel's most fundamental national interests. After the election, messengers from the Likud came to me. I told them that I would happily join a Likud-led government, but not with Netanyahu."
According to Sa'ar, only one person is to blame for the situation that the right-wing camp has found itself in, and that is Netanyahu himself. "If the current government is so terrible, why does he not move aside and allow the establishment of another one headed by another Likud member? Netanyahu's emissaries offered me to be the first in the rotation, I rejected it because I did not seek to be prime minister with six seats."
"Throughout the negotiations I was clear: either a national government headed by another MK from the Likud, or a national unity government. More than that, I proposed to form a temporary government for a year or two, that he would remain chairman of the Likud but the prime minister would be another MK, without the games like Putin and Medvedev that the president controls the prime minister like a puppet. He rejected everything. Netanyahu's ideology is only Netanyahu. All talk of the land of Israel and right-wing values is a smokescreen.
Sa'ar also refers to criticism of the coalition partnership with Mansour Abbas and the Ra'am party, and mentions: "Netanyahu has invested all his political capital in making Mansour Abbas kosher. He did not hesitate and even activated rabbis, from Rabbi Tau to Rabbi Kanievsky who issued halakhic rulings that qualify him on one condition, that Netanyahu be at the head. The person who led the rehabilitation of Ra'am in Israeli politics is only one person, Benjamin Netanyahu. He is the one who smashed the bloc and dismantled the partnership in the right-wing camp."
"This man has carried out horrific propaganda, persecuted people, instilled a culture of slander and incitement and tarred political opponents, including within the Likud and within the national camp. Anyone who signs an agreement with him knows that his commitments have no meaning and he will not honor what he promised.
"We have reached the end, we cannot continue like this. That is why I said most openly, whoever wants Netanyahu should not vote for me. It was very important to me that he move aside. And it was also important to me that no one would come to me with complaints the day after and say you misled me," Saar said.