Why Gideon Saar Is Running Against Benjamin Netanyahu

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Good evening. Why are you challenging your hitherto close, close ally, and mentor?

GIDEON SAAR, FOUNDER, NEW HOPE PARTY: In politics, you can support someone as long as you think he’s doing the right thing for the country. What happened during the last years demonstrated totally the opposite? What we had saw in Israel, we are now in front of the fourth election campaign within two years. It is unprecedented and this instability — political instability also influence economic instability and social instability. And people in Israel wants change in order to bring Israel to track once again. And there is another issue we must bring our society together again. We have a very severe polarization, divisions in our society. And I don’t think that Mr. Netanyahu will be able to unite the nation. I’m not sure if he — it is in his interest. And I’m sure I can do it. So, from all these reasons, so many Israelis want to open a new page to have a new hope. And this is why I decided to establish this new party and to challenge the — and to compete to be the next prime minister of Israel.

AMANPOUR: So, I want to pick you up on, I’m sure I can do it. Because, as you’ve seen, and I said, four elections in the last two years. He pretty much won or cobbled a coalition together, and each and every one of them, they didn’t last. The last one was with, you know, Benny Gantz and that sort of central lefty movement there. You’re coming at it from a different angle, obviously, from a very similar political angle to Benjamin Netanyahu, which is the right. What makes you think that you have any better chance of defeating the longest-serving Israeli prime minister? What makes you think you can do it?

SAAR: You can see from the minute our party was established; you can see it in all the polls that it changed the political map. We are a center-right party, but we do think we must have an alternative to someone who holds power for 15 years. It is a very long time. By the way, my intention is to do the first thing, is to change the law and make limit term of maximum eight years in power. And so many Israelis that share my views, thinks we need a change, and we thinks that we need to create a different atmosphere in our society. We don’t see someone with different views even though he is — he is our political opponent, is our enemy, we see him as a brother with different views.