After being readmitted to Likud, Sa’ar says he set aside differences with PM to save Israel from destruction

Addressing the Likud Central Committee, newly readmitted party member Gideon Sa’ar declares that it is “good to return home.”

After October 7, the opposition had to decide “whether they would exploit this terrible and historic event and the difficult war that followed it for political gain, or whether they would mobilize to strengthen the State of Israel at a fateful time,” he says, thanking God for the opportunity to “strengthen the Israeli government and the State of Israel during these critical moments.”

Following “a long series of conversations” with the prime minister, Sa’ar began to understand his strategy to “dismantle the Iranian axis” and decided to join the government, he continues, asserting that the day will come when “we will be able to proudly tell our grandchildren and great-grandchildren about the decisions that saved the State of Israel from the danger of destruction.”

Even before Sa’ar rejoined the government last September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already started making overtures regarding the New Hope party chairman’s return to Likud, he adds, framing the merger as the “unification and strengthening of the national camp” ahead of “a historic struggle against the broad international attempt to force Israel to establish a Palestinian state.”

“Who will be able to lead the people and the state in this campaign against the establishment of a Palestinian state other than the national camp, the Likud led by the Prime Minister?” he asks. “Yair Lapid? Yair Golan?”

Sa’ar dismisses media coverage quoting his previous criticisms of Netanyahu, instead recalling when they “worked together shoulder to shoulder.”

Thanking Netanyahu for his trust, he says that “anyone can look back, but usually what can be changed is the future.”

“With God’s help, we are strengthening and will continue to strengthen the national camp” ahead of the next national election, he concludes.