Justice Minister and New Hope party chairman Gideon Sa'ar on Wednesday evening attacked former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud faction and claimed that they prefer personal and political interests over the good of the state.
In a speech at a conference of New Hope activists in Moshav Azaria in the Shephelah, Sa'ar attacked Netanyahu's opposition to the law preventing family reunification, saying, "The Likud today seeks to thwart the extension of the family reunification for reasons that clearly favor political interests over the good of the state."
"Throughout the election campaign I said, warned and clarified that the problem today is that personal and political interests are preferred over the good of the state. This is how we got to the situation in the previous Knesset that, in order to avoid keeping an agreement they signed, they prevented the approval of the budget in order to bring the state to a fourth election. Reckless behavior."
Sa'ar added that the Likud is still not learning the lesson, even from the opposition. "They are not doing any soul searching. They continue to radicalize the same way of turning their backs on the state in order to achieve political interests because maybe it will hurt the government; maybe it will hurt the coalition. What do you think? That the people of Israel do not understand this? That everything is kosher? That this way will bring you back to power? On the contrary, it will keep you out of power. Get a hold of yourselves, for God's sake. Serve the people and the state in the opposition."
"Be an opposition to the government. It's okay, it's your job. Do not be in opposition to the most vital interests of the State of Israel; and all this is done under the heading of ‘right-wing and nationalistic’. Yeah right," Sa'ar said, calling the Likud a "turbo engine of incitement and poison 24 hours a day. In the media, on the Internet, everywhere."
The Minister of Justice clarified that in the face of the Likud's attacks, "we will stand as strong as we did during the period of coalition negotiations. Because we know that the group led by Netanyahu must be kept out of power for a long time, until it wakes up and returns to a path that understands that the role of elected officials is to serve the citizens of Israel, to serve the State of Israel and not the personal good of one person. This is a very important thing and believe me - they will figure it out eventually. It's a matter of time."