Sa’ar, a longtime Netanyahu ally, emerges as his main opponent

Now, the telegenic Sa’ar, with strong political armor and protest against its former leader, could be Netanyahu’s biggest challenge.

After breaking away from the Likud Party to form his own faction, Sa’ar is running against Netanyahu in the March elections and has emerged as the long-time leader’s main contender.

The challenge halts the dramatic decline of Sa’ar-Netanyahu’s relationship, setting a subtle political mindset against his former adviser in a very personal battle in past protests. gone.

A culturally liberal worldly resident of Tel Aviv with a well-known news anchor wife, Sa’ar, 54, is a tough nationalist who has long been seen as heir to the leadership of the Likud Party. After unsuccessfully challenging Netanyahu in a leadership race and then refusing a government job in retaliation, Sa’ar broke down last month on his own. He said his goal is to counter Netanyahu for turning the Likud into a tool for personal survival at a time when he is being tested over the charges of corruption.

Sa’ar’s chances of becoming prime minister in the next elections are far from certain and polls predict that his New Hope party will come in second place after Likud. But his entry into the race is reshaping the pitch and could exacerbate Netanyahu’s work of forming a coalition government, possibly removing the Israeli leader after more than ten years at the helm.

“If there’s anyone who can beat Netanyahu it’s Gideon Sa’ar,” said Sharren Haskel, a former Likud lawyer who left the party to join Sa ‘ on. “He is the only one who can stand up to Netanyahu because of his ideology, experience and abilities.”

Haskel, along with other Sa’ar friends in Likud, decided on a plan to block a bill that could avoid elections. In a late-night motion, they opposed the party by skipping the vote or voting against the bill, capturing Netanyahu off guard and encouraging the fall of the government. They have also coordinated the move with members of opposition parties hiding in the Knesset parking lot until times before the vote, protesting the Sa’ar’s political safety, the distance he is willing to go to Netanyahu take down and its ability to reach across the corridor. .

While Sa’ar has given some hope that Netanyahu’s rule is on the rocks, an impact may not mean major changes in policies, especially for the Palestinians. Sa’ar, like Netanyahu, is a tough nationalist instead of Palestinian independence.

Those right-wing credentials seem to be playing out in his favor. Opposing other recent Netanyahu opponents who have tried to appeal to a wider, medieval swath of Israelis, Sa’ar is taking away both votes of Netanyahu supporters who are broken down as well as Likud lawyers. He has been accompanied by at least four shortcomings, including Ze’ev Elkin who was a former Netanyahu.

“He’s attacking from the right,” Hebrew University political scientist Reuven Hazan said. “It’s a completely different game.”

Three previous elections from 2019 ended in a close between Netanyahu and his then-opponent, former army chief Benny Gantz. The latest vote in March ended with a power-sharing agreement that collapsed last month after months of abuse.

Sa’ar entered politics in 1999, serving as cabinet secretary in Netanyahu’s first government. He became Likud ‘s legislator in 2002 and remained loyal to the party and Netanyahu, even when the party collapsed in the 2006 elections.

Since Netanyahu returned to the top in 2009, Sa’ar has held powerful education positions and an interior minister, pushing tough policies against illegal immigrants along with more socially liberal teaching that extended public education to children preschool. He again won the top spot in Likud party primary, just below Netanyahu.

After marrying popular Israeli news anchor Geula Even-Sa’ar – a second marriage for both of them – took a five-year hiatus from public life. Sa’ar returned to politics in 2019, but was sharply confined to the backbench after challenging Netanyahu at Likud primary school.

Now, freed from Netanyahu’s capture of Likud, Sa’ar may have a chance to fight.

Announcing his departure, Sa’ar said he could not do any more service under Netanyahu.

“There is a need for a change in the direction of the country,” Sa’ar said. “Today, Israel needs unity and stability. Netanyahu cannot, and will not, be able to deliver.”

Since bolting, the Likud has tried to paint Sa’ar as a left-handed man in a panic, but his record shows otherwise.

Sa’ar has been a long-standing opponent of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, the long-standing international alliance for ending the conflict.

“He is largely beyond Bibi,” said political analyst Avraham Diskin, who has known Sa’ar for years. He referred to Netanyahu by the nickname. “But he’s a pragmatic man, not a fan. He’s cautious and at a flat rate,” he said, indicating that he may again be under pressure from the international community.

Sa’ar supports the construction of West Bank settlements and the depopulation of parts of the West Bank, giving some independence to the Palestinians living on the West Bank. land. That would fall far short of their demands for an independent state that includes the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel captured all three territories in the 1967 Six-Day War, although it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

“There is no two-state solution; there is at most a two-state slogan,” Sa’ar told the Israeli Times in 2018. “The state of Palestine is established a few miles away from Ben-Gurion Airport and Israel’s prime population centers would create a security and demographic threat to Israel. “

While some Israelis are not yet raising those views to support Sa’ar instead of Netanyahu, others say his rise is only a rise of another hard-line nationalist.

“The next Prime Minister of Israel will be a man full of justice, without distinction and without reputation,” daily Gareton column writer Gideon Levy wrote in the liberal Haaretz. “The choice is between two ultra-nationalists, Netanyahu or Sa’ar: Bibi or Gidi. There may not be another viable candidate. This is a difficult fact, but a very brutal one.”