Sa’ar votes in primary, says he wants to ‘join hands’ with PM for Likud victory

Former Likud minister Gidon Sa’ar, voting in the Likud primary on his return to the party after a five-year hiatus from politics, on Tuesday tried to downplay a rift between him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he wanted to “join hands” with the premier in order to help him win April’s national elections.

“I appeal to all Likud members — you will decide today whether we will appoint an excellent team to run in the elections with a clear advantage. I trust them and know that what motivates them is the good of the movement, and that’s how they will vote,” he said after casting his own ballot at the polling station in the Tel Aviv Convention Center.

“Today is an important day for the Likud and for me, and I recommend that everyone not take too much notice of the punditry,” he added, dismissing questions about Netanyahu’s accusation that Sa’ar is plotting to replace him.

In the first episode of his new “Likud TV” webcast Sunday evening, Netanyahu again claimed Sa’ar was working to unseat him, and sources close to the prime minister later said he was working to ensure Sa’ar did not emerge as the top vote-getter in the party primaries.

Sa’ar, who had hit back at Netanyahu and accused him of spreading “fake news,” said on Tuesday that he was looking to the future and hoped he could work with Netanyahu, not against him.

“You may be interested in everything that happened until yesterday,” he told journalists outside the polling station, “I am interested in everything that will happen starting tomorrow, and tomorrow morning I will join hands for Likud and for the Likud victory in the elections.”

Netanyahu claimed that Sa’ar had approached a number of people within the Likud party and asked them to throw their support behind him so that he would be tasked with forming a government after the elections — due to an expected announcement by the attorney general that he will be indicting the prime minister on charges of graft, pending a hearing.

If Netanyahu were to be forced to step down due to criminal charges, the MKs with the most support in the party would be considered natural candidates to replace him, making the battle for the top spots even more intense. Some commentators have half-jokingly described the primary as the 2020 leadership race.

From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m, some 119,000 eligible voters will have a chance to cast their ballots in a complicated ranking system for national and district candidates in 113 polling stations across the country. Sa’ar joins 28 currently serving MKs and ministers vying for the first 18 spots on the electoral list, which are designated for candidates running in the nationwide ballot.

Sa’ar, who entered the Knesset as a Likud MK in 2003 and has twice come out tops in the party primary, has said his ultimate goal is to be prime minister, but he has publicly pledged to back Netanyahu, a vow he repeated ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

In a message to Likud voters Tuesday morning, Netanyahu made no mention of Sa’ar, or any other candidate, calling instead for support for a proposal to allow him to appoint any candidate he likes to to the 21st, 26th and 36th spots, in a move that could allow him to merge the Likud slate with a smaller party without getting separate permission from the Central Committee.

“I call upon you to come and vote today in the primaries, and I call upon you to ensure the victory of the Likud by voting for my proposal,” he said, saying the measure was needed “to assure the Likud has the ability to deal with the mergers between the leftist parties.”

A poll published Monday showed Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience party sustaining a surge in popularity almost a week after the former general’s campaign launch placed him as a serious challenger to Netanyahu.

Already having announced a merger with former chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem party, talks have recently intensified between Gantz and Yesh Atid ahead of a February 21 deadline to file their list of candidates with the Central Elections Committee, after which the parties cannot merge or change the order of candidates.

The results of the Likud primaries are expected overnight Tuesday.