Sa'ar welcomed Halevi to the party on social media, posting a picture with a jersey having Halevi's name and the number ten printed on it.
By GIL HOFFMAN, TZVI JOFFREGIDEON SA’AR at his office at the Knesset in Jerusalem last year.(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi on Monday announced he is joining prime ministerial candidate Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party and will be on its Knesset list in the March 23 election.“I am excited and happy to join the New Hope movement led by Gideon Sa’ar, the next prime minister of Israel,” he said. “Israel needs new leadership and new hope.”Sa’ar welcomed Halevi to the party on social media, posting a picture with a jersey having Halevi’s name and the number 10 printed on it.Halevi is expected to be No. 10 on the party’s list of candidates, which includes MKs Yifat Shasha-Biton, Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser and former MKs Ze’ev Elkin, Sharren Haskel and Michal Shir. The list will have an equal number of women and men.Now that the MKs have joined, New Hope is focusing on attracting mayors. The party’s municipal campaign is led by Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen, a former Likud MK who does not intend to leave City Hall to return to the Knesset.Halevi has been mayor of Eilat for 17 years. He left Likud a year and a half ago in a fight over the closure of Tel Aviv’s Sde Dov Airport, which handled domestic flights to Eilat.Ashdod Deputy Mayor Gabi Knafo joined the party, as did the deputy mayor of Ashkelon.At a conference of the Israel Democracy Institute on Monday, Sa’ar, who is a former interior minister, called for increasing the power of local authorities.He also called for term limits for prime ministers and for electing half of the MKs in direct regional elections, as he proposed in a bill a dozen years ago.“I believe in building a wide consensus for such changes,” Sa’ar said.
