Israel’s Netanyahu appoints former critic Gideon Saar to his cabinet

Jerusalem — Israeli opposition legislator Gideon Saar is rejoining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in a step that is likely to strengthen the premier politically.

The hawkish Saar, who has been one of Netanyahu’s most vocal critics in the past few years, is due to serve as a minister without a portfolio and have a seat in the prime minister’s security cabinet, Israeli television station N12 said.

Expanding the government to include Saar’s strengthens Netanyahu by making him less reliant on other members of his ruling coalition, which has been struggling in the polls as it presses on with a war in Gaza and against Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

“Difficult and trying days lie ahead,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday. “This move contributes to our own unity and to our unity in the face of our enemies.”

Saar and Netanyahu said they were putting their past rifts aside.

“We will work together, shoulder to shoulder, and I intend to seek his (Saar’s) assistance in the forums that influence the conduct of the war,” Netanyahu said.

Opposed to Palestinian statehood on security grounds, Saar is seen as further to the right than Netanyahu ideologically, but his joining the government is not widely expected to have a big impact on its security policy.

Conscription

By joining the government with his four-seat party, Saar will give Netanyahu a majority of 68 in the 120-seat parliament.

This could help solve one of the biggest political challenges the coalition faces in the next few months — passing a new military conscription law. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in June that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students into the military.

The issue has widened cracks in Netanyahu’s coalition, which relies on two ultra-Orthodox parties that want to keep their constituents in religious seminaries and out of a melting-pot army that might test their customs.

Saar’s inclusion also reduces the power of the far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has threatened to bring the government down if it ends the war in Gaza.

Saar was once a senior member in Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party but left after a failed leadership challenge.

Saar broke away from Likud in 2020 to form his own party and became one of fiercest critics of Netanyahu, who faces a long-running trial on corruption charges that he denies.

After Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war, he joined Netanyahu’s emergency unity government but left in March, citing frustration with its war policies.

Reuters