TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – For years, Gideon Saar has been one of the most loyal and vocal supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, serving as cabinet secretary and government minister.
Now, telegen Saar, armed with extraordinary political expertise and a frightful resentment against his former boss, could prove to be Netanyahu’s biggest challenge.
After splitting from the Likud Party to form his own faction, Saar is running against Netanyahu in the March elections and has become the leader’s longest-running rival.
The challenge covers the astonishing decline of the Saar-Netanyahu relationship, putting a cunning political mind on his former mentor in a deeply personal battle full of past grievances.
A secular resident of liberal cultural Tel Aviv with a news anchor wife, Saar, 54, is a strong-line nationalist long seen as the heir to the Likud Party leadership. After unsuccessfully challenging Netanyahu in a driving race and then denied a government position in revenge, Saar broke out on his own last month. He said his goal is to overthrow Netanyahu because he turned Likud into a tool for personal survival 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 the poll predicts that his New Hope party will come in second after Likud. But his entry reconfigures the playing field and could complicate Netanyahu’s task of forming a coalition government, perhaps leaving the Israeli leader out after more than a decade in power.
“If there is anyone who can defeat Netanyahu, it is Gideon Saar,” said Sharren Haskel, a former Likud parliamentarian who left the party to join Saar. “He is the only one who can stand up against Netanyahu because of his ideology, his experience and his abilities.”
Haskel, along with other Sahrawi allies in Likud, have devised a plan to counter a bill that could avoid the election. In a late maneuver, they defied the party by jumping from the polls or voting against the bill, catching Netanyahu on guard and causing the government to collapse. They even coordinated the movement with members of opposition parties who hid in the parking lot of the Knesset until moments before the vote, attesting to Saar’s political skill, the lengths he is prepared to take to bring down Netanyahu and his potential ability to get across the aisle.
While Saar has given some hope that Netanyahu’s rule is on the rocks, a victory would probably not mean significant policy changes, especially for the Palestinians. Saar, like Netanyahu, is a tough nationalist who opposes Palestinian independence.
These right-wing credentials seem to play in his favor. Unlike other recent Netanyahu competitors, who have tried to appeal to a wider centrist gang of Israelis, Saar withdraws the votes of both Netanyahu’s disappointed supporters and Likud MPs. At least four deserters joined him, including Netanyahu’s former confidant Zeev Elkin.
“Attack from the right,” said Jewish University political scientist Reuven Hazan. “It’s a whole other game.”
Three previous 2019 elections 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 the first Netanyahu government. He became a Likud lawmaker in 2002 and remained loyal to the party and Netanyahu, even when the party fell in the 2006 elections.
Since Netanyahu’s return for the first time in 2009, Saar has held strong positions as education and interior minister, pushing tough policies against illegal migrants. along with a more socially liberal doctrine that extended public education to preschoolers. He has repeatedly won first place in the Likud party mayors, just below Netanyahu.
After marrying Geula Even-Saar, an Israeli popular news anchor – the second marriage for both of them – she took a five-year break from public life. Saar returned to politics in 2019, but was immediately confined to the back seats after challenging Netanyahu to a Likud mayor.
Now freed from Netanyahu’s power over Likud, Saar could have a chance to fight.
In announcing his departure, Saar said he can no longer serve under Netanyahu.
“A change in the country’s leadership is needed,” Saar said. “Today, Israel needs unity and stability. Neither Netanyahu can, nor will he, be able to provide. “
Ever since he screwed, Likud has tried to paint Saar as a left-wing man in disguise, but his record indicates otherwise.
Saar was a long-term 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 has known Saar for years. He referred to Netanyahu by his nickname. “But he is a pragmatic person, not a fanatic. He is prudent and balanced, “he said, noting that he could control 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 giving some autonomy to Palestinians living in the territory. This would be far from their requirements for an independent state that would include 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 a few kilometers away from Ben-Gurion Airport and the main population centers in Israel would create a security and demographic danger for Israel. ”
While some Israelis who do not support these views are still eager to support Saar as Netanyahu’s replacement, others say his rise only raises another strong-line nationalist.
“Israel’s next prime minister will be a completely right-wing, uncompromising and ruthless man,” columnist Gideon Levy wrote in the liberal daily Haaretz. “The choice is between two ultra-nationalists, Netanyahu or Saar: Bibi or Gidi. There will probably be no other viable candidate. This is a disgusting reality, but very real. “