Gideon Sa'ar, Binyamin Netanyahu
Gideon Sa'ar, Binyamin NetanyahuMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Former Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar responded Thursday to the harsh accusations made last night by Prime Minister Netanyahu that he had concocted a "conspiracy" to oust him undemocratically.

"What Netanyahu did was a serious thing and the crossing of a red line. He is surrounded by people with bad intentions, and I regret that he chose this," Sa'ar told Army Radio.

"I understood that I have been approaching the status of a regime opponent in recent days, and I told my wife: I am not approaching any consulate in the coming days," Sa’ar said.

Sa'ar 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. "

"A field trial is being conducted against me without evidence. I say to Netanyahu - what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow," Sa'ar added.

A close associate of the prime minister said in response, "Gideon Sa'ar's hysterical reaction and his vitriolic remarks against Prime Minister Netanyahu only prove what all the facts show: Gideon Sa'ar is a subversive who tried to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu against the will of the Likud voters. His will for power caused him not to be cautious in recent weeks, when he spoke with ministers and MKs and revealed his plan to oust Netanyahu after the prime minister leads the Likud to victory in elections."

On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused a former senior minister from the Likud party, meaning Sa’ar, of plotting to bring him down during a party in his office.

"For a few weeks now, I have known that a former Likud minister is talking to coalition elements and has devised some subversive maneuver, that I will bring the Likud to a landslide victory in the elections and then ensure that I will not be prime minister against the will of the Likud voters," Netanyahu said.

"I walk around the country with you and I see the tremendous support we have: in me, in my wife, such support I cannot remember since I entered politics. From the start [this plot against me] was doomed to failure because the public will not allow such a thing to happen. But it did reveal a loophole in the law and we will think about what to do with it," he added.