Likud politician Gideon Sa’ar announced his return to politics Monday night at a pre-Passover “L’Chaim” (toast) for party members in Acco.
Sa’ar was serving as Interior Minister in 2014 when he announced his resignation, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He was also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Number Two person in the party at the time, but said he was leaving politics for “personal reasons” and provided no further explanation.
Now on his way back in, Sa’ar said simply he “took a break to be with the family and deal with other challenges,” adding that now his break “has come to an end.
“I am returning to public and political work in our party, the Likud,” he said in his comeback speech. “My goal is to strengthen the Likud for the future and guarantee that it will also lead the country in the future.”
He also took care to praise his party chair, the prime minister, for “guarding Israel’s interests during eight tough years.” But he added that the country’s international problems were far from over. “There are still dangerous plans out there to pressure Israel to return to pre-1967 lines, and we must support the prime minister in standing up to that pressure,” he said.