JNS
Additional lawmakers are expected to make similar announcements in the coming days.
Israeli Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Zvi Hauser are expected to announce on Wednesday that they will be joining former Likud Knesset member Gideon Sa’ar’s new party for the March 16 elections, Ynet reported.
Sa’ar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival in the Likud, announced on Tuesday he was leaving the party to form his own.
Derech Eretz Party founding members Hendel and Hauser are both former Netanyahu aides, and joined the coalition as part of the Blue and White bloc.
In his statement on Tuesday, Sa’ar said, “Everything that has happened in the last year has made me realize a change in the country’s leadership was necessary,” according to the report.
“Loyalty to Likud’s way, values and ideals have been replaced by flattery and platitudes that border on a cult of personality of a man who is flesh and blood,” he added.
Sa’ar ran against Netanyahu in a Likud primary last year, receiving only 27.5 percent of the vote.
While there is speculation in the Israeli media that some other Likud MKs may bolt the party to join Sa’ar, there have been no official announcements yet.
Caption: Knesset members Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser at the Knesset, ahead of the opening session of the new government, on April 29, 2019.
Photo by Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90.
