Ex-Likud minister accuses Netanyahu of waging ‘witch hunt’ against him

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of leading a “witch hunt” against him, pushing back on claims by the premier that he is plotting to replace him.

Ahead of Tuesday’s Likud primaries, Netanyahu has dredged up unproven reports that Sa’ar and President Reuven Rivlin had hatched a scheme that would see the president sideline Netanyahu after the elections and task Sa’ar with forming a government in his stead.

Sources close to the premier said he was working to prevent the ex-minister from emerging as the top vote-getter.

“The prime minister, his workers, his family — they’re all applying pressure on activists on the ground, municipal leaders and Knesset members who dare to come to our conferences,” Sa’ar said in an interview with Channel 12 news.

“The fact that I respect the prime minister as the head of the [Likud] party and as the prime minister doesn’t mean my good name should be sullied,” he added.

Sa’ar said that since the alleged plot was reported in the the pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom newspaper in October, it has undergone several revisions, as to who he approached about the plot and under what circumstances.

“Each of the three versions are false and none of them contain even a single grain of truth,” he said.

Quoting a line often used by Netanyahu to deny the various corruption allegations against him, Sa’ar quipped, “There is nothing because there was nothing.”

Sa’ar also said that in light of Netanyahu’s complaints of anonymous media reports detailing corruption allegations against him, the prime minister should practice what he preaches.

“I would expect that someone who feels persecuted wouldn’t persecute others,” he said.

Netanyahu is a suspect in three separate corruption investigations and has denied any wrongdoing. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he intends to indict Netanyahu pending a hearing, a move which the premier has said would be an intervention in the elections.

In a separate interview with Channel 13 news, Sa’ar was asked about a Facebook post by the prime minister’s son alleging Rivlin was planning to tap him as premier instead of Netanyahu, as the original Israel Hayom report had claimed.

“Even the prime minister is not repeating this nonsense,” Sa’ar said, noting that the so-called “Gideon Sa’ar bill” preventing the president from choosing anyone who does not head a party from forming a government had failed to pass before the Knesset dissolved in December for early elections.

Sa’ar first entered the Knesset as a Likud MK in 2003 and held the posts of education and interior minister before stepping down in 2014. He announced his return to politics in 2017.

Though he has said his ultimate goal is to be prime minister, Sa’ar has publicly pledged to back Netanyahu, a vow he repeated in Monday’s interviews.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu’s efforts to prevent Sa’ar from winning Tuesday’s primaries has sparked anger among Likud ministers and MKs, who believe they have strengthened Sa’ar at their expense.