HE’S GOT MY VOTE
The challenger for the Likud leadership slams Benjamin Netanyahu for broken promises in Jordan Valley.
By GIL HOFFMAN, JPOST
Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar looks out over the Bedouin outpost of Khan al-Amar, West Bank, December 10, 2019 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Likud leadership candidate Gideon Sa’ar symbolically began his campaign on Tuesday by touring sites in the Jordan Valley that are seen as a symbol of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broken promises.
Netanyahu promised ahead of the September election to annex the Jordan Valley. Ahead of past elections, he has visited the E-1 site between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim, and promised to build there. He vowed in an October 2018 cabinet building to remove the Bedouin shantytown of Khan al-Ahmar adjoining Rte. 1.
Sa’ar pointed out on the tour that Netanyahu has not kept any of those promises. He also reacted to hints from Netanyahu in a speech on Sunday that Sa’ar would not be as loyal to Judea and Samaria.
“I support the views that the prime minister expressed here during past election campaigns,” Sa’ar said mockingly at E-1. “It is possible to carry out these views better.”
Sa’ar said there was a window of opportunity to take action while Israel enjoys an administration in Washington that allows Israel a relatively free hand because there is no guarantee that the next American administration will be better. He said the time had come to take steps to ensure contiguity from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley.
“The struggle for E-1 is a struggle for the heart of Israel,” Sa’ar said. “Netanyahu out of all people, who built the Har Homa neighborhood [in Jerusalem] despite international pressure, should be building here. The rule for Har Homa should be the rule for E-1 and Givat Hamatos [in Jerusalem].”
Speaking earlier at Khan al-Ahmar, Sa’ar said the reason the illegal squatter camp in the West Bank’s Area C was not removed was that it is not a Jewish site. He criticized Netanyahu for saying Khan al-Ahmar would be removed “very soon” and not following through.
Earlier Tuesday, in a speech to pro-Israel members of parliament from around the world at the Israel Allies Foundation conference in Jerusalem, Sa’ar said that European countries who fund Khan al-Ahmar were displaying a “lack of moral clarity,” because it was built illegally on land that is Israel’s according to the Oslo Accords and because the residents were offered a more hospitable site.
Sa’ar said that “the world is suffering from lack of moral clarity on Islamic extremism and on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” He lamented that the international community “makes excuses for Islamic terrorism instead of fighting against it” and that this lack of moral clarity was dangerous.
The meeting was attended by ministers and MPs from around the world, who presented Sa’ar with a declaration against the decision recently taken by the European Court calling for the marking of goods produced in the Judea and Samaria region, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Sa’ar pointed out that the decision was illegal, according to the rules of the World Trade Organization that forbid singling out a country.
“This is an attempt to delegitimize the right of the Jewish people to live and build our future in the land of our forefathers,” Sa’ar said. “Your announcement that you are making here today is a clear and important voice.
“Making clear the rights of the Jewish people in our homeland. Making clear you reject BDS, and recognizing BDS as a clear expression of antisemitism. Making clear that the Jewish people cannot be ‘occupiers’ in their own land.”
Sa’ar also took time to comment on the upcoming British general election on Thursday, saying that Labour’s candidate for prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn, “makes clear his anti-Israel positions.”
“I truly hope he won’t win the election,” he said.
Regarding Israel’s election, Sa’ar said that polls showed he could bring support from the other side of the political map. He warned that if Netanyahu continued to lead Likud, the party would still not be able to form a government after a third election.
“I’m sure I will lead Likud to a big victory and a government led by Likud in which all the Zionist parties will be invited to negotiate,” he said. “But if we continue the same path we are on now, we should not expect different results.”
Alex Winston contributed to this report.
@ Wooly Mammoth:
Yes, Bibi’s command of English is excellent and he is perfectly bilingual. Actually he also speaks French to some degree.
Saar is very articulate in Hebrew and that is how he would win over Israelis (75% of whom are born in Israel now).
Bennett is NOT designated by Bibi as his successor. He was appointed as DM by Bibi to keep the New Right from possibly joining with the Blue/White in a coalition. He is not a Likud member and unless special rules would be made for him he is not eligible to run with the Likud. The Likud for the next election will have a primary (leadership race for its Chairman) which right now is only Saar and Bibi. Bibi being ahead a bit in internal polling I hear. The Knesset list of the Likud will stay the same as in the previous election.
[Continued]
[Just as I entered this post, Bear; yours came through. I am sorry to hear about what you described as serious charges. I am sure you know more about this than do I. ]
However, after watching the entire Sa’ar interview I felt that the interviewer was dominating Sa’ar on some very easy questions that Netanyahu could answer powerfully, in his sleep, while Sa’ar’s responses were hesitant, inarticulate.
Bear, Sa’ar is not PM ready, despite his other attributes.
PM Netanyahu has proven the importance of Israel’s PM being totally 100% fluent in English, no ifs ands or buts.
I am no expert on the subject, however, it would appear to me Netanyahu’s designated successor is Naftali Bennet. Until such time as Netanyahu is incapacitated or retires, there is no one on earth better than the tried and tested Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennet will learn from his mentor and will most probably be an excellent PM.
@ Wooly Mammoth:I like Bennett and Shaked. That is actually my favorite party the “New Right” because of them. However, that said this is a small party. They naturally belong in the Likud but both are some of the very good people Bibi chased from the Likud.
Case 4000 (fixing regulations to the detriment of the public and gaining value from it is a BRiBE) by the way on paper looks very serious and Bibi has real problem here.
The Dems charges of impeachment against Trump are only political in my view. The prosecutor and some of the police in Israel may have been looking for crime and it appears they found two. One very serious case 4000 and one that if factual case 1000 should be resolved with a fine in my view. Taking $200,000 + worth of gifts and not reporting them or turning them over to the state.
@ Bear Klein:
With respect to The Barakat interview:
I could imagine Netanyahu similarly responding to the standard questions posed by a typical CBS Newsmonkey.
Mayor Barakat did just perfectly fine. I like him too.
Why would he be any better than Bennet do you think.
So far, I am very impressed with Bennet as Defense Minister.
He would appear to be tackling intractable issues, long delayed and/or ignored.
Honestly, I do not know what Likud represents without Netanyahu today.
Sa’ar in the interview shows no fault in his responses. Quite respectable. However his command of English is not what it should be.
When Sharon grew tired of Likud he jumped ship and created a cardboard facade called Kadima. That was a forgettable. Especially after Olmert.
The fluidity of Israeli politics can suddenly erupt suddenly and render a veteran party like Likud, irrelevant.
I am yet to be convinced Netanyahu deserves to be thrown out. I doubt he has done anything worthy of indictment.
It seems like an attempted coup similar to what The Democraps are doing with their hysterical impeachment.
Thanks Bear. I will continue to gather information.
@ Wooly Mammoth:See Saar in English interview.
He is very articulate in Hebrew and English is adequate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KAQVhpHxho
@ Wooly Mammoth:
Listen to Nir Barkat talk on US TV about Jerusalem & Trump when mayor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mgZrbUZh4c
@ Wooly Mammoth:
Kindly do google searches start with Barkat who has the broader resume in my view as he is a successful business man plus was an excellent mayor of Jerusalem.
Saar was a lawyer and longtime politician.
@ Bear Klein:
Bear, can you expound on your views of Sa’ar vs. Barakat.
I am trying to learn more about both of them.
Sa’ar has a reputation for being a “straight shooter”.
Please provide good in depth references for further reading.
Gideon Saar
A senior ranking member of the executive committee of the right wing Zionist party, married to a feted journalist socialite wife, contesting the party leader and calling to elect an alternative leader in Jerusalem, namely himself.
If you think this is Gideon Saar, think again. Actually, I’m referring to a gentleman called Meir Grossman (1888–1964).
Grossman, was Vice Chairman of the Revisionist party the fore runner of Likud. He was aiming to usurp the leadership from Begin at the European Conference of Zionist-revisionists in June 1950.
Like Saar, who is married to TV anchorwoman Geulah Even-Saar, Grossman was married to Barbara de Port, an American journalist. Barabara is credited with encouraging Dorothy Thompson, her old friend from Buffalo, to join her on a trip to Europe where Thompson, the famous suffragette became a journalist and wrote the book “I saw Adolf Hitler”.
A staunch supporter of Zionist and Jewish causes, Thompson, in later years in the 1950s, like so many others in ‘progressive’ circles switched sides to oppose Zionism.
One is only to hope, Geulah Even-Saar, wife of Netanyahu’s contender Saar, will not exert upon her husband the extreme left-leaning tendencies of her mainstream media peers. But hope is a weak comfort.
Meir Grossman had attempted a grab at leadership of the Revisionist party already in the 1930s. By 1932 Jabotinsky had lost any faith in continuing to participate in the executive of the Zionist Congress. Jabotinsky, prophetically, was convinced the Jewish masses needed an own state urgently, before catastrophe would unleash. Jabotinsky realized his party was being sidelined by the Zionist executive, and their policies were being stalled. Weitzman and Ben Gurion were eager to appease the British and agreeable to pander the Arabs. Thus Jabotinsky decided it was better in the interest of the Jewish people, to leave the Zionist Congress and eventually start the fight that led to Britain’s departure from Israel.
Opposed to this, Grossman decided to depose Jabotinsky, and sought to be elected in his stead. Grossman was willing to defer the Revisionist’s claim for independence, forgo for the time being the insistence on unrestricted immigration to Eretz Israel. He claimed it was better instead to seek ‘unity’ within the Zionist camp, go along with the policies of the socialist parties, at least for now and Grossman was willing to accept the British White Paper deferring immigration to Palestine. Meir Grossman of course, was also eager to assume the number-one position in the party himself, even as that meant selling out the Revisionist party’s objectives. Sadly, this was just on the eve of Hitler’s election to power.
Thankfully, a few loyal party functionaries out maneuvered Grossman during the party’s conventions in Kattowitz and Reichshof in March 1933. But for decisive actions of the loyal party base, the Revisionist party would have been absorbed into the main defeatist Zionist movement. Begin would not have been able to conduct his fight against the British independently. And without the foresight of the Revisionist movement, opposition to the British which the Haganah initiated only late after the War, would have come too late. Because only a mere months after Israel gained independence, the Cold War set on, and America would not have allowed a British withdrawal from the Middle East on the global chessboard, anymore.
Like Grossman before him, Saar is seeking to replace Netanyahu. He is calling for ‘unity’ with the left-leaning parties, and to avoid another election at any cost, as if prolonging the Likud for another half year in government were such a bad thing.
For the sake of peace with globalist elements opposed to Israeli control of Judea, Saar is open to power sharing, predicated of course, on Saar participating in the rotation as Prime Minister.
If that happens, we can only hope his journalist socialite wife will not re-program Saar to accommodate the worldviews of her celebrity ‘friends’.
Gideon Saar
A senior ranking member of the executive committee of the right wing Zionist party, married to a feted journalist socialite wife, contesting the party leader and calling to elect an alternative leader in Jerusalem, namely himself.
If you think this is Gideon Saar, think again. Actually, I’m referring to a gentleman called Meir Grossman (1888–1964).
Grossman, was Vice Chairman of the Revisionist party the fore runner of Likud. He was aiming to usurp the leadership from Begin at the European Conference of Zionist-revisionists in June 1950.
Like Saar, who is married to TV anchorwoman Geulah Even-Saar, Grossman was married to Barbara de Port, an American journalist. Barabara is credited with encouraging Dorothy Thompson, her old friend from Buffalo, to join her on a trip to Europe where Thompson, the famous suffragette became a journalist and wrote the book “I saw Adolf Hitler”.
A staunch supporter of Zionist and Jewish causes, Thompson, in later years in the 1950s, like so many others in ‘progressive’ circles switched sides to oppose Zionism.
One is only to hope, Geulah Even-Saar, wife of Netanyahu’s contender Saar, will not exert upon her husband the extreme left-leaning tendencies of her mainstream media peers. But hope is a weak comfort.
Meir Grossman had attempted a grab at leadership of the Revisionist party already in the 1930s. By 1932 Jabotinsky had lost any faith in continuing to participate in the executive of the Zionist Congress. Jabotinsky, prophetically, was convinced the Jewish masses needed an own state urgently, before catastrophe would unleash. Jabotinsky realized his party was being sidelined by the Zionist executive, and their policies were being stalled. Weitzman and Ben Gurion were eager to appease the British and agreeable to pander the Arabs. Thus Jabotinsky decided it was better in the interest of the Jewish people, to leave the Zionist Congress and eventually start the fight that led to Britain’s departure from Israel.
Opposed to this, Grossman decided to depose Jabotinsky, and sought to be elected in his stead. Grossman was willing to defer the Revisionist’s claim for independence, forgo for the time being the insistence on unrestricted immigration to Eretz Israel. He claimed it was better instead to seek ‘unity’ within the Zionist camp, go along with the policies of the socialist parties, at least for now and Grossman was willing to accept the British White Paper deferring immigration to Palestine. Meir Grossman of course, was also eager to assume the number-one position in the party himself, even as that meant selling out the Revisionist party’s objectives. Sadly, this was just on the eve of Hitler’s election to power.
Thankfully, a few loyal party functionaries out maneuvered Grossman during the party’s conventions in Kattowitz and Reichshof in March 1933. But for decisive actions of the loyal party base, the Revisionist party would have been absorbed into the main defeatist Zionist movement. Begin would not have been able to conduct his fight against the British independently. And without the foresight of the Revisionist movement, opposition to the British which the Haganah initiated only late after the War, would have come too late. Because only a mere months after Israel gained independence, the Cold War set on, and America would not have allowed a British withdrawal from the Middle East on the global chessboard, anymore.
Like Grossman before him, Saar is seeking to replace Netanyahu. He is calling for ‘unity’ with the left-leaning parties, and to avoid another election at any cost, as if prolonging the Likud for another half year in government were such a bad thing.
For the sake of peace with globalist elements opposed to Israeli control of Judea, Saar is open to power sharing, predicated of course, on Saar participating in the rotation as Prime Minister.
If that happens, we can only hope his journalist socialite wife will not re-program Saar to accommodate the worldviews of her celebrity ‘friends’.
I like what Saar is saying even though I like Barkat more.
Bibi has been implying that Saar would abandon the settlements. Pure Bullshit.
He really should not run in the primaries for the best of Israel and himself.
Sa’ar is playing dirty politics and under the circumstances my respect for him is the null set. (Netanyahu will not sell Trump out for his unprecedented support for Israel)
I support Netanyahu, 100%
I know what Sa’ar is trying to do in the way he is attempting to undermine The PM. It is repugnant. (and) That cat is out of the bag.
Look, The Israeli electorate will do the right thing.
I hope Lieberman loses sooo many votes he will be unable to qualify for anything.
The “Black and Blue Party” will bring back Oslo or worse. It must not be the part of any government of Israel.
Jewish construction in E1. Like you Ted, I applaud Gideon Saar’s statements.
All of on Israpundit were calling for this acutely for many years. Finally, yesterday, December 10th, 2019, Saar arrived at Khan al-Ahmar, surrounded with dour looking goons in sunglasses, for a staged performance, in order to present his bona fides as the strong man, champion of a whole undivided Eretz Israel.
Yet, where has he been before, all these years. Saar will need to do more to earn trust. Right now, all Saar is doing is dividing the Likud and driving a wedge into the heart of the right bloc.
Left leaning Blue White and its satellites are not interested in a merger of equals, that would truly reflect the near to 50%/50% split between right and left in the Israeli electorate. Rather, Gantz seeks a merger of un-equals whereby Blue White also gets to dictate the composition within the right wing and depose of Bibi. This is carrying it too far.
And Saar, sadly, is lending himself to this ploy. Getting rid of Bibi is only a first step to adopt the globalist agenda for an Arab hold on Judea.