TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – For years, Gideon Saar was one of the most loyal and outspoken advocates of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, serving as cabinet secretary and government minister.
Now the telegenic Saar, armed with extraordinary political skill and a strong grudge against his former boss, can prove to be Netanyahu’s biggest challenge.
After breaking with the Likud Party to form his own faction, Saar competes against Netanyahu in the March elections and has emerged as the main rival of the longtime leader.
The challenge covers the impressive decline of the Saar-Netanyahu relationship, putting an astute political mind against its former mentor in a deeply personal battle drenched in complaints from the past.
A secular resident of Tel Aviv’s liberal culture with a celebrity anchor wife, Saar, 54, is a hardline nationalist long seen as an heir to the Likud Party leadership. After unsuccessfully challenging Netanyahu in a race for leadership and after being denied a government post in return, Saar last month fled alone. He said his goal was to topple Netanyahu for turning Likud into a personal survival tool at a time when he is on trial for corruption charges.
Saar’s chances of becoming prime minister in the next election are far from certain and polls predict his New Hope party will be second, after Likud. But his entry into the dispute reconfigures the playing field and could complicate Netanyahu’s task of forming a coalition government, perhaps driving the Israeli leader off after more than a decade at the helm.
“If there is anyone who can defeat Netanyahu, it is Gideon Saar,” said Sharren Haskel, a former Likud legislator who left the party to join Saar. “He is the only one who can stand up to Netanyahu because of his ideology, his experience and his capabilities.”
Haskel, along with other Saar allies in Likud, devised a plan to thwart a bill that could prevent elections. In a late-night stunt, they defied the party by skipping the vote or voting against the bill, catching Netanyahu off guard and leading to the collapse of the government. They even coordinated the action with members of opposing parties who hid in the Knesset parking lot until moments before the vote, testifying to Saar’s political ability, as far as he is prepared to go to take down Netanyahu and his potential ability to cross the corridor.
Although Saar has brought hope to some that the Netanyahu government is in ruins, a victory is unlikely to mean significant policy changes, particularly in relation to the Palestinians. Saar, like Netanyahu, is a hard-line nationalist who opposes Palestinian independence.
These right-wing credentials appear to be playing in your favor. Unlike other recent Netanyahu opponents who have tried to appeal to a broader, more centrist band of Israelis, Saar is sucking the votes of both disillusioned Netanyahu supporters and Likud lawmakers. At least four defectors joined him, including former Netanyahu confidant Zeev Elkin.
“He is attacking from the right,” said Hebrew University political scientist Reuven Hazan. “It is a totally different game.”
Three previous elections since 2019 ended in an impasse between Netanyahu and his then opponent, former military chief Benny Gantz. The most recent vote in March culminated in a power-sharing deal that collapsed last month, after months of dysfunction.
Saar entered politics in 1999, serving as cabinet secretary in Netanyahu’s first government. He became a Likud legislator in 2002 and remained loyal to the party and to Netanyahu, even when the party plummeted in the 2006 elections.
Since Netanyahu’s return to the prime minister in 2009, Saar has held powerful positions as minister of education and the interior, promoting hardline policies against illegal immigrants alongside a more socially liberal doctrine that extended public education to preschoolers. He repeatedly won first place in the primaries of the Likud party, just below Netanyahu.
After marrying popular Israeli anchor Geula Even-Saar – a second marriage for the two – he took a five-year hiatus in public life. Saar returned to politics in 2019, but was immediately confined to the rear after challenging Netanyahu in a Likud primary.
Now, free from the clutches of Netanyahu no Likud, Saar may have a chance to fight.
Announcing your departure, Saar said he could no longer serve under Netanyahu.
“A change in the country’s leadership is necessary,” said Saar. “Today, Israel needs unity and stability. Netanyahu also cannot and will not be able to provide. “
Since he fled, Likud has tried to paint Saar as a leftist in disguise, but his record indicates otherwise.
Saar is a long-standing opponent of the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, the long-standing international consensus to end the conflict.
“He is far more right-wing than Bibi,” said political analyst Avraham Diskin, who said he had known Saar for years. He was referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. “But he is a pragmatic person, not a fanatic. He is cautious and balanced, ”he said, indicating that he can contain himself under pressure from the international community.
Saar supports the construction of settlements in the West Bank and the annexation of parts of the West Bank, while granting some autonomy to the Palestinians living in the territory. This would fall far short of its demands for an independent state that includes the entire West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel captured the three areas in 1967, although it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
“There is no two-state solution; there is, at most, a two-state slogan, ”Saar told the Times of Israel in 2018.“ The establishment of a Palestinian state just a few kilometers from Ben-Gurion Airport and Israel’s main population centers would create a demographic and security danger to Israel. ”
While some Israelis who do not hold such views are still eager to support Saar as a replacement for Netanyahu, others say his rise only elevates another hardline nationalist.
“Israel’s next prime minister will be a fully developed, right-wing, uncompromising and ruthless man,” wrote columnist Gideon Levy in the liberal newspaper Haaretz. “The choice is between two ultranationalists, Netanyahu or Saar: Bibi or Gidi. There will probably not be another viable candidate. This is a dark reality, but a very serious one. “