TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – For years, Gideon Saar was one of the most loyal and vocal supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acting as cabinet secretary and government minister.
Now, the telegenic Saar, armed with extraordinary political knowledge and a grudge against his former boss, could turn out to be Netanyahu’s biggest challenge.
After separating from the Likud party to form his own faction, Saar ran against Netanyahu in the March elections and has become the long-term leader’s top rival.
The challenge overcomes the impressive decline of the Saar-Netanyahu relationship, pitting a cunning political mind against his former mentor in a deeply personal battle, flooded with past grievances.
A culturally liberal Tel Aviv lay resident with a celebrity news presenter wife, Saar, 54, is a hard-line nationalist who has long inherited the Likud party leadership. After unsuccessfully challenging Netanyahu in a leadership career and then denied a government position as remuneration, Saar exploded last month on his own. He said his goal was to overthrow Netanyahu to turn the Likud into a tool for personal survival at a time when he is being prosecuted on corruption charges.
Saar’s chances of becoming prime minister in the next election are not certain and polls predict his New Hope party will come in second place after the Likud. But his entry into the race is reshaping the playing field and may complicate Netanyahu’s task of forming a coalition government, perhaps setting aside the Israeli leader after more than a decade at the helm.
“If there’s anyone who can beat Netanyahu, it’s Gideon Saar,” said Sharren Haskel, a former Likud lawmaker who left the party to join Saar. “He is the only one who can defend Netanyahu for his ideology, his experience and his abilities.”
Haskel, along with other Sar allies in the Likud, devised a plan to thwart a bill that could prevent the election. In a nightly maneuver, they challenged the party by skipping the vote or voting against the bill, catching Netanyahu on guard and causing the government to collapse. They even coordinated the play with members of opposing parties who hid in the Knesset parking lot until moments before the vote, testifying to Saar’s political wisdom, the distances he is prepared to bring down Netanyahu and his potential ability to get to the hallway.
While Saar has given some hope that Netanyahu’s government is on the rocks, a victory probably would not mean significant changes in policies, particularly toward the Palestinians. Saar, like Netanyahu, is a hard-line nationalist opposed to Palestinian independence.
These right-wing credentials seem to play in their favor. Unlike other recent Netanyahu challenges that have attempted to appeal to a wider Israeli centrist area, Saar eliminates both the votes of disillusioned Netanyahu supporters and Likud lawmakers. At least four deserters have joined him, including Netanyahu’s former confidant Zeev Elkin.
“He’s attacking from the right,” said Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at the Hebrew University. “It’s a completely different game.”
Three previous elections since 2019 ended in a stalemate between Netanyahu and his then challenger, former military chief Benny Gantz. The most recent vote in March culminated in a power-sharing agreement 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 Netanyahu, even when the party plummeted in the 2006 election.
Since Netanyahu’s return to prime minister in 2009, Saar has held powerful positions as Minister of Education and Interior, pushing hard-line policies against illegal migrants. alongside a more socially liberal doctrine that extended public education to preschool children. He won several times the first place in the Likud party primaries, just below Netanyahu.
After marrying the popular Israeli news presenter, Geula Even-Saar, a second marriage for both of them, took a five-year hiatus from public life. Saar returned to politics in 2019, but quickly limited himself to later banks after challenging Netanyahu in a Likud primary.
Now freed from Netanyahu’s reach over the Likud, Saar may have a chance to fight.
When announcing his departure, Saar said he could no longer serve under Netanyahu.
“We need a change in the country’s leadership,” Saar said. “Israel needs unity and stability today. Neither Netanyahu can nor will he be able to provide. “
Since its launch, the Likud has attempted to paint Saar as a disguised left-hander, but its history indicates otherwise.
Saar has been a longtime opponent of the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, the long-standing international consensus to end the conflict.
“He’s more right-wing than Bibi,” said political analyst Avraham Diskin, who said he has known Saar for years. He referred to Netanyahu by his nickname. “But he is a pragmatic person, not a fanatic. It is prudent and wrong, “he said, noting that it could be curbed under pressure from the international community.
Saar supports the construction of West Bank settlements and the annexation of parts of the West Bank, while granting some autonomy to Palestinians living in the territory. This would fall far short of their demands for an independent state that included the entire West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel captured all 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 a few kilometers from Ben-Gurion Airport and major Israeli settlements would create a demographic and security threat to Israel. ”
While some Israelis who do not defend these views still wish to support Saar as a replacement for Netanyahu, others say his rise only elevates another hard-line nationalist.
“Israel’s next prime minister will be a total right-wing man, uncompromising and relentless,” columnist Gideon Levy wrote in the liberal newspaper Haaretz. “The choice is between two ultranationalists, Netanyahu or Saar: Bibi or Gidi. There will probably be no other viable candidate. This is a sad but very agile reality.”