Formally joining coalition, Sa’ar blasts former opposition colleagues, with personal attack on Labor MK

New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar delivers his first speech in the Knesset plenum since he joined the government yesterday, blasting his former colleagues in the opposition, including a personal attack on a female Labor lawmaker.

Sa’ar makes the comments in a speech prior to a Knesset vote to confirm his party’s entry into the government, which passes 57-40.

“They say I came to pass the draft evasion law. You continued with this lie even when I said I had no coalition agreement,” Sa’ar says, according to Ynet.

“In all the issues you mentioned in the discussion, including the hostages and conscription, what do you give to the state? What do you add to the national resilience? What do you influence? Nothing and nothing,” Sa’ar says.

In a direct rebuke to Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, Sa’ar says: “You called for the ceasefire with Lebanon to be accepted. If they had accepted your position, Hassan Nasrallah would be alive, and with him, all of Hezbollah.”

Sa’ar also snipes at Labor MK Efrat Rayten: “You asked what they will remember me for? You will be remembered mainly from the children’s channel,” he says, referring to her earlier career before she retrained as a lawyer prior to her election.

Sa’ar says that he joined the government “after a series of long conversations with the PM and I feel that I have the possibility to make an impact.”

At the conclusion of his speech, he is welcomed by his new colleagues in the government with hugs.

אז כמה נמוך ירד סער כדי להשיב אש לחבריו לשעבר מהאופוזיציה?
לאפרת רייטן: שאלת מה יזכרו ממני. אותך יזכרו בעיקר מערוץ הילדים pic.twitter.com/O7ftVS0HNG

— דפנה ליאל (@DaphnaLiel) September 30, 2024