PM failing to deal with terror wave, says ex-Likud minister

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is widely expected to be a future candidate for prime minister, on Thursday unleashed a blistering attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of failing to deal properly with the current wave of Palestinian terror sweeping Israel and the West Bank.

In an interview with Army Radio, the former interior and education minister said the government had failed to set clear objectives in its fight against terror.

“The moment you don’t set a target, you’re pulled, you’re dragged, like during the 50 days of the great battle against Hamas,” Sa’ar said, referring to Operative Protective Edge in which Israel waged war with Hamas in Gaza in summer 2014. “I don’t think that needed to last for 50 days.”

Asked about the right way to deal with terror, Sa’ar advocated deporting to Gaza those Palestinians who incite to violence against Jews. “Without creating an awareness of loss on the personal level among those who incite and also on the national level among the Palestinians, we can’t hope that this intifada will end by itself in some way,” he said.

Sa’ar called for more building in Jerusalem, claiming there was an insignificant amount of construction for Jews in the face of rapid illegal construction in city’s predominantly Arab-inhabited eastern neighborhoods.

“If these trends continue, then by 2030 there will be a demographic draw in Jerusalem and from then on, there may be an Arab majority in the city. We have to strengthen our hold on Jerusalem. There is a Palestinian effort to create territorial contiguity from Bethlehem to Ramallah — and there’s no response from the Israeli side to these steps.”

Claiming that he had not yet decided whether to return to politics after his 2014 departure, and refusing to saying whether he would return to the Likud party if he did so, Sa’ar said: “I don’t particularly miss politics… I’ll weigh going back to political life if I identify a situation in which I can make change. I’m not close to that point of decision.”

The Likud party responded by slamming Sa’ar as someone with no defense experience and who had not made an operational decision in his life, “but to chit chat from his living room in Tel Aviv about the security situation, as if he understands the considerations facing the political echelon — that costs nothing.”

A party statement added that the army, security services, police and all other security personnel were working with “determination and with the full backing of the political echelon” to take “unprecedented steps” in the war against terror.