Yanky Kanievsky, the grandson of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanivesky who is constantly by his illustrious grandfather’s side, spoke at length by phone to New Hope chairman Gideon Saar on Sunday afternoon in an effort to convince him to join a coalition with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Yanky’s efforts were unsuccessful as Saar stuck to his promise that he would not join a coalition headed by Netanyahu and would also not agree to hold a meeting with Netanyahu on the issue.

This isn’t the first time that Yanky has gotten involved with politics. In May 2019, he met with Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman after he refused to join a coalition headed by Netanyahu.

Saar, who broke off from the Likud to form his own party prior to last month’s elections, made not sitting with Netanyahu one of his central campaign promises and he is keeping to his promise despite the current political imbroglio in which neither the right or left can form a coalition with enough mandates for a majority government.

Due to the stalemate, both sides are considering forming a coalition supported by the Islamist Ra’am party, an unprecedented and highly controversial scenario for the right-wing bloc.

Sa’ar, who began being shomer Shabbos about seven years ago, regularly visits the home of HaRav Chaim for brachos.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)