Amid speculation regarding the makeup of Israel's ruling coalition ahead of the country's fourth election in two years, Hew Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar told i24NEWS on Monday that his candidacy offered the only viable and realistic alternative to long-time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Unlike the "divisive" Netanyahu, Sa'ar, Netanyahu's former Likud associate, can "unite a significant range of forces on the political spectrum," from centrist Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to the ring-wing hardliner Yamina party head Naftali Bennett, Sa'ar said.
"I don't have a problem with Lapid as a coalition partner," Sa'ar insisted. "But what I'm saying is that he has tried to unseat Netanyahu in five elections, and he failed to replace the government time and again."
The latest poll ahead of the March 23 election placed New Hope in third, trailing behind Likud and Lapid's Yesh Atid.
Regarding the continued construction of Israeli settlement units in the West Bank, Sa'ar said that "this has been the policy of every Israeli government since the 1967 war" and he has no intention of deviating from it.
While every Israeli government since that war, Sa'ar said, had "differences with Washington" on the settlements policy, Sa'ar is best placed to "achieve understandings in a sincere, direct dialogue" with the Democrat administration of US President Joe Biden, "a long-time friend of Israel."
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Regarding the Iranian nuclear threat, Sa'ar said he believed that the US has "learned from the mistakes" of the 2015 nuclear agreement hashed out by the administration of former President Barack Obama.
"We see the Iranians today directly, publicly breaching that agreement and I think that we have a common goal: preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon."
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
