Gideon Sa'ar
Gideon Sa'arHezki Baruch

New Hope chairman, MK Gideon Saar, addressed the Meron tragedy at the opening of his party's faction meeting today (Monday, May 3).

"What happened on Mount Meron - not just this year - is inconsistent with the conduct of a reformed state. A comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, must be conducted to root out flawed practices, draw on previous experience, and lay the foundations for proper handling of the event."

After PM Netanyahu appeared to direct his comments at New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar in a Facebook post, writing: “Most of the country is against a government like this, even if it has a fig leaf of right-wing support. Sixty-five seats [worth of voters] voted for a right-wing government. The vast majority of them voted for me as prime minister, either directly by voting Likud, or indirectly via parties which vowed beforehand to sit in my coalition.

Sa'ar, for his part, reiterated his previous unwillingness to sit on a Netanyahu-led government on any condition. "I recently heard Netanyahu [boasting of having] a 65-seat [coalition]. In other words, he's counting New Hope voters among his support base. Our voters supported us on the premise that we would replace Netanyahu - not support him," continued Sa'ar. "Even having him take on the post of deputy prime minister is not what our voter base had in mind," he reasserted.

Netanyahu also announced his agreement to allow Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett’s to serve as prime minister first in a rotational power-sharing agreement, and urged right-wing leaders to help him form a new government.

“During these difficult days we must not give in to baseless hate,” wrote Netanyahu. “We cannot have personal feuds or boycotts within the Right prevent us from forming a government.”

“We must not return to the disaster of Oslo and establish a left-wing government with a right-wing fig leaf as cover. A government like this will be weak, divided, and unable to function.”

“A government like this – with Lapid, [Meretz chief] Nitzan Horowitz, Yair Golan, [Labor chief] Meirav Michaeli, Ibtisam Mara'ana, and [Joint Arab List chief] Ayman Odeh won’t prevent settlements from being uprooted. Just the opposite! Lapid himself backs uprooting 80,000 settlers!”