Sa’ar slams PM: Even Israel’s security is now for sale

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar on Friday lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for playing political games with Israel’s security, lamenting the fact that now “everything is for sale.”

“Security has become a political chess game,” Sa’ar told a business conference in Eilat, lashing out at a much-reported row between Netanyahu and key coalition partner Naftali Bennett over the running of the inner security cabinet.

“It is sad to see the political system lose its last remaining checks and balances,” said Sa’ar, who is currently taking a break from political life. “Everything is for sale, everything is permitted, there are no longer any sacred cows.”

Education Minister Bennett, who heads the Jewish Home party and is a member of the security cabinet, claimed last week that its members were expected to vote on crucial, life-or-death matters in wartime without first being presented with sufficient information.

He demanded an improvement in the management of the cabinet before he would approve the inclusion of Yisrael Beytenu in the coalition and its hardline leader Avigdor Liberman in the cabinet. A compromise was reached this week, and Liberman’s appointment went through.

Sa’ar stressed, however, that he was not alluding to Liberman’s appointment as defense minister, but rather the political maneuvering that accompanied it.

“Public arm-wrestling in the coalition over the issue of the security cabinet — is this a political issue? I was a member of the security cabinet for three different governments, but it was never conducted like this.”

Health Minister Yaakov Litzman drew up the compromise under which the head of the National Security Council would brief ministers before they vote on significant military operations.

Sa’ar also blasted political meddling in the case of the IDF soldier currently on trial in a military court for manslaughter for shooting dead a disarmed Palestinian attacker in Hebron in March.

“The military should deal with these issues without political interference, which is a very dangerous thing — because when every cabinet member publicly states whether he believes it’s right or wrong to open fire, what is a soldier in the field supposed to take from that?” Sa’ar said. “I have difficulty understanding people who claim responsibility to deal with such issues and then say things they are unauthorized to say.”

“When elected officials start dealing with micro-tactics, it’s a system gone mad,” Sa’ar said. “Stop speculating on the subject of national security, the rule of law, the foundations that hold us up. I propose the politics of building bridges instead of deliberately deepening rifts out of political or electoral considerations.”

Recent polls showed that a political partnership between Sa’ar and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, who was ousted to make room for Liberman, could defeat Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

On his plans to return to politics, Sa’ar said: “I took a time out. Time outs end. When this time out ends I will have to make a decision and then seek the public trust and return to public life. I am a Likud member and believe in Likud’s path.”