Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi on Monday announced he is leaving Likud and joining Gideon Sa'ar's new political party ahead of the March 23 elections.
"Israel needs a new leadership and a new hope," he said. "I decided to leave the Likud movement, of which I was a member for many years, because the movement and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, changed its face and disappointed the public."