A week before the elections, New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar was interviewed in Arutz Sheva’s studio on Wednesday and explained why, in his opinion, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not represent the right at all, and why he still sees himself as a candidate for Prime Minister despite the consistent decline in polls.
"I am running till the end, I believe in our path and I am here to bring about the change that Israel needs. We are a week before the elections, when the biggest changes happen."
In Netanyahu's campaign there is only one other candidate, Yair Lapid. Why is he ignoring you?
"He constantly attacks me and sends his people to attack us at our rallies. And you can see his activity on his social media and through his mouthpieces in the media. It's an external threat that he preferred to present Yair Lapid as a person who does not threaten him because he cannot form a government. It is quite transparent."
You talk about forming a right-wing government, but you do not have enough seats.
"I am not engaged in the process of forming a coalition before the election. I am explaining to the people of Israel, who are going to the polls for the fourth time in two years at a cost of 15 billion shekels, that change is required and that unfortunately Netanyahu today prefers his personal interests over the good of the state. He preferred to drag the country back to the polls in the middle of the economic crisis, so change is needed, and for such a change to happen, a big 'New Hope' is needed. No one says about me that he will not sit with me. We are the only option to prevent new elections."
Do you regret not uniting with Yamina before the slates were submitted?
"There was no such practical possibility."
Will the first phone call be to Bennett in order to establish a 'common bloc' after the election?
"Unfortunately, Bennett made it clear yesterday that he will go with Netanyahu. But if Netanyahu does not have 61 seats [for a coalition], I would definitely be happy to cooperate with Bennett, to form a national government."
As a Likud member, you are boycotting more than a million voters who support Netanyahu.
"Absolutely not, I turn to them and tell them: ‘You have a new home that reflects your values and way.’ I respect and love the people of the Likud, but if I think Netanyahu is leading the State of Israel to bad places, I cannot join him. This is not a boycott at all. We live in a democratic country where you present an alternative. If you fail to convince the public you go to the opposition. But you should not join something that you think is not good for your country."
If you are faced with two options of sitting under Lapid or a fifth election, what will you choose?
"Lapid cannot form a government. He wants to form a government with the Joint List and I will not accept that. The only possibility for a stable alternative government is if we become strong enough and form such a government."
You are a right-winger, we know the national opinions of the members of your party. Does the idea of 'anyone but Bibi' come before the desire to form a right-wing government?
"You refer to Netanyahu as right-wing and I ask you, what right? The right that for more than 20 years has not regulated young settlement? Netanyahu who has done nothing for a decade about a Palestinian takeover of Area C, Netanyahu who transfers vaccines to Hamas without even demanding our sons back? What right are you talking about, what connection is there between Netanyahu and the right? The Bibism today does not represent the values of the national camp and I am not willing to worship one person that I do not see leading the way I believe."
You claim that Netanyahu is not interested in the good of the state, but we are now seeing the vaccination campaign. Is this not the good of the state?
"He did his job [with the vaccinations]. But I saw time and time again that the citizens of Israel are suffering. When the independents did not even receive their advances, Netanyahu went to the Finance Committee to arrange for himself 600,000 shekels for a villa in Caesarea, is this how a Prime Minister like Begin or Shamir would have behaved? Is it logical that a Prime Minister who has the support of 72 MKs in the Knesset does not approve a budget so as not to keep an agreement he signed and drag Israel into elections? Is that in the interest of the state?"
Right is a reform of the legal system, the regulation of settlement, how will you do all this in a government together with the center-left?
"I am not getting into the efforts to form a coalition, I only say one thing. I have a real commitment to these issues. I passed reforms in the judiciary as an MK in the opposition, 'defense of justice' and a change in the election of judges to the Supreme Court when all of Netanyahu's governments did not pass any reform. Netanyahu, because of his special legal situation, has no credit to do anything. I think that in a real dialogue, a fairly broad basis can be created for carrying out significant reforms in the field of law. Both systemic reforms and those that fortify human rights in investigation and law."
How do you explain the decline in seats? Are you doing anything to change direction?
"I am not a political pollster. I work hard to persuade the public to put their trust in New Hope that will bring with it something new and valuable to our politics."