Sa’ar Nabs Top Likud MK, Hitting Netanyahu Where It Hurts Uri Cohen Elkin could be key for potential game-changing voting bloc The steady exodus from Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party continued Wednesday evening, with one of his closest confidants, Minister of Higher and Secondary Education and Water Resources Ze’ev Elkin, offering a scathing rebuke of the Israeli prime minister and his conduct on primetime television before joining the new party of his nemesis, Gideon Sa’ar. “You’ve destroyed the party, turned it into a personality cult, a byzantine court,” Elkin accused his former patron and friend. “We’re headed for a fourth election [in less than two years] because of your desire to influence the selection of the next attorney general and state attorney,” he added, hinting at attempts by Netanyahu to interfere with his ongoing corruption trial.