Dani Dayan, former Consul General of Israel in New York who is running for the 24th Knesset on behalf of the New Hope party, on Wednesday evening criticized the way the coronavirus crisis is being managed.

“Netanyahu blames everyone. Netanyahu said yesterday that those who distribute fake news are the ones responsible for schools not opening. To say that some Rabbi Asherov who no one has heard of is responsible, and not Binyamin Netanyahu – is a scandal. That is fake news,” Dayan said in an interview on a joint broadcast of i24NEWS and Israel Hayom.

“I follow the interactive map of the New York Times on the coronavirus every day. Today Israel is the second in the world in the number of people infected per capita, after Montenegro. It is true that vaccines are an achievement of Netanyahu and the Israeli government, but you know, it is like saying that in the Yom Kippur War we crossed the Suez Canal in the end – that does not mean that Golda Meir did not make a huge mistake following which she was eventually forced to retire from politics. So the fact that he did something good, and we will have to see the results later, does not mean he did not manage this crisis well for 12 months and people paid with their lives for it,” he added.

Dayan also commented on his party’s decline in recent polls. “It is very natural that this happens, whenever there is a new star in Israeli politics it happens in the polls, but I have no doubt that in the last few weeks, or even in the last days before the election, it will come down to a race between Netanyahu and Sa’ar. Why? Because Gideon Sa’ar is the candidate who has a chance to replace Netanyahu.”

“Most of the Israeli public is in the center-right and only a candidate from the center-right can form a coalition that can replace Netanyahu and it is very clear: Likud, the haredim parties, Smotrich, Ben Gvir and probably Mansour Abbas – with Bennett. If they get more than 61 seats, the Prime Minister will be re-elected. If they do not – Gideon Sa’ar is the only one who can form an alternative coalition and people understand that this is the real race, Netanyahu against Sa’ar,” he added.

Asked whether he would prefer to be part of a government headed by Netanyahu or go to a fifth election, he replied, “I see no reason why this should be the case. It is very simple: if Netanyahu, Bennett, the haredim, Ben Gvir, Smotrich and probably Mansour Abbas’ party get 61 seats – he will form a government. But if he does not – we will form a government.”