Ex-minister Gideon Sa’ar confirms he’ll run in Likud party primaries

Former minister Gideon Sa’ar announced Tuesday morning that he will be rekindling his political career after a four-year hiatus and running for a spot on the ruling Likud party’s slate in the upcoming April 2019 elections.

The move was hardly a surprise after Sa’ar’s wife, television anchor Geula Even-Sa’ar, abruptly announced her departure Monday evening as the host of the Kan public broadcaster’s main nightly newscast.

Even-Sa’ar said at the end of the main evening news program: “This was the last newscast I am anchoring, and it has been a great privilege to host it.” She added that she had submitted her resignation earlier in the day.

“To anyone who was still in doubt, I am announcing I will run in the primaries,” Sa’ar told Israel Radio the following morning. “I believe my success in the primaries will help Likud win the general elections.”

Sa’ar, a former education minister and interior minister, is seen as a potential challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from within the ruling party. He quit politics in 2014 amid reported tensions with Netanyahu, but said last year that he would return and run in the next party primaries.

“A year and a half ago I declared I was returning to public activity, and since then I have toured the country and engaged in public and political work,” he added. “I feel I have widespread support in my movement. Likud members will decide whether I will represent them in the 21st Knesset.”

Sa’ar said he didn’t want to speculate what slot he could achieve on the Likud list of candidates, but added that it was important to him to get “a respectable spot.”

In October, Netanyahu accused Sa’ar of plotting behind the scenes to replace him as premier. According to a report in the pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom daily, Sa’ar hoped to convince the president after the elections to task Sa’ar with forming a government.

The accusation spurred legislation that would force the president to choose only among party leaders when tasking someone to form a government, though the bill will seemingly die along with the 20th Knesset later this week.

Sa’ar said Tuesday that he was “hurt by the fact that the prime minister has marked me [as a target], but that’s unimportant right now. We need to know how to prioritize the general above the personal.”

On Monday, the governing coalition announced it would dissolve the Knesset and call new elections for April 9.

According to the Israel Hayom report in October, President Reuven Rivlin was mulling the possibility of tasking someone other than Netanyahu with forming the government — another MK within Likud, if the party wins resoundingly, or a lawmaker from another party, if the margin of victory is narrower — in light of the ongoing corruption investigations against the prime minister.

Under current law, after elections, the president consults with the heads of all factions before asking the lawmaker deemed to have the best chances of forming a government to begin negotiations with potential coalition partners. The person tasked with forming a government is generally the one that receives the most recommendations from other parties, and is usually — but not necessarily — the head of the party that has won the largest number of seats.

Police have recommended indicting Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases, and lawmakers close to him have launched repeated attacks on the press and police, proposing various pieces of legislation to limit their ability to report on or investigate public figures, respectively.

Sa’ar dismissed the Israel Hayom report at the time as a “ridiculous conspiracy theory.” Rivlin also dismissed it in unusually strong terms, calling it “paranoia.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.