In new coalition deal with Likud, Sa’ar relinquishes right to oppose Haredi draft bills
Deal only grants incoming foreign minister’s New Hope party discretion to vote differently than the coalition on laws regarding medical marijuana and changes to the judicial system
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Gideon Sa’ar sealed his New Hope party’s coalition deal with Likud on Wednesday, effectively giving up his ability to oppose the government’s efforts to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service after repeatedly vowing to stand against such legislative efforts.
Under the agreement, Sa’ar will become Israel’s new foreign minister in place of Israel Katz, who is himself replacing ousted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, while New Hope MK Sharren Haskel will become deputy foreign minister, working on public diplomacy, and Ze’ev Elkin will be appointed a minister in the Finance Ministry.
Sa’ar’s appointment as Israel’s chief diplomat was made possible by the replacement of Gallant, who opposed coalition efforts to exempt members of the Haredi community from military service.
Gallant was fired Tuesday on the heels of an IDF announcement that it planned to send out another 7,000 draft orders to Haredim as well as the coalition’s decision to cancel a vote on a controversial bill that sought to circumvent a High Court ruling preventing state-funded daycare subsidies from going to the children of ultra-Orthodox men who did not serve in the military.
While Sa’ar has repeatedly insisted his party would oppose bills that enable draft dodging and do not fulfill the needs of the military, his new coalition agreement with Likud only gives him discretion to vote differently than the coalition on bills concerning changes to the judicial system and medical cannabis.
Speaking with The Times of Israel, an anonymous source with knowledge of the matter said that while New Hope still officially opposes such bills, actively voting against them could be tricky due to its coalition agreement with Likud.
However, the party “could abstain” and “right now it’s not coming to a vote,” the source said.
The coalition is considering two bills — one large, complex and currently stalled piece of legislation would seek to “regulate” Haredi conscription, a term critics say is a euphemism for providing broad exemptions; the other stopgap measure, known as the Daycare Bill, would in the meantime enable Haredi men who have not enlisted to continue receiving daycare subsidies despite the High Court ruling currently preventing it.
Sa’ar has previously expressed doubt about the coalition’s efforts to legislate a solution to the Haredi draft issue, telling The Times of Israel in June that “if we cannot legislate a good law, it’s better not to legislate a law at all.”
Taking action against other opponents of the Haredi bills, Coalition chairman Ofir Katz informed Likud MK Dan Illouz on Wednesday that will be replaced on the Knesset Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees and will be barred from submitting private bills for the next month and a half.
Illouz had come out publicly against the Daycare Bill, as had fellow Likud lawmaker and committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, who this week said he would not support “any law that attempts to circumvent our ceaseless efforts to expand the conscription base in the State of Israel.”
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Katz informed Edelstein that he will not be allowed to submit any bills for a month and will not be allowed to speak on behalf of the faction in the Knesset.
The long run-up
Rumors that Netanyahu would replace Gallant with Sa’ar had been circulating for months before the defense minister’s ouster, with Sa’ar denying as early as July that he had received an offer that would bring him back into the coalition.
Sa’ar began his political career in the Likud party, and became one of its most prominent members until disputes with party leader Netanyahu drove them apart, causing Sa’ar to quit politics in 2014 and later return with a vow to not politically collaborate with Netanyahu again.
But the former Likud lawmaker and minister joined the coalition as part of the National Unity alliance with Benny Gantz following the October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel. Sa’ar’s New Hope then quit the alliance with Gantz in March and weeks later announced his party’s departure from the government, after his demand to be admitted to the now-defunct high-level war cabinet was denied.
During his time in the opposition, Sa’ar was a harsh critic of the government’s conduct of the war in Gaza, stating that he would be willing to make “concessions” to other opposition parties in order to create a right-wing bloc opposing Netanyahu.
In late September, after intense speculation that Netanyahu was about to fire Gallant and replace him with Sa’ar, Sa’ar announced that Netanyahu had indeed offered him the role of defense minister in order to bring his party back into the coalition, but said he could not accept the position amid the significant escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
However, only a week and a half later, Sa’ar was back in the coalition as a minister without portfolio and a member of the security cabinet, the limited forum convened for major decisions regarding the management of the war.
His inclusion boosted the coalition’s majority to 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, affording the prime minister a measure of political maneuverability.
Rejoining the government was “the patriotic and right thing to do now,” he argued at the time, pushing back against criticism by his former allies in the opposition.
“There’s no point continuing to sit in the opposition, where most members’ positions on the war issue are different, even far from my own. Right now, it is my duty to try to contribute at the table where decisions are made,” Sa’ar said — praising a series of devastating blows Israel dealt to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group.
Further promises
In addition to his party’s new cabinet roles, Sa’ar was promised the leadership of a new ministerial committee committed to strengthening communities in the Golan Heights as well as renewed efforts to boost Ariel University in the West Bank.
The Foreign Ministry under Sa’ar will receive a budgetary increase of NIS 545 million ($146 million) for a campaign to improve Israel’s public diplomacy abroad. Sa’ar, alongside New Hope MK Ze’ev Elkin, will take part in security consultations, including on Iran’s nuclear program.
Elkin will oversee the Tekuma Directorate, tasked with rehabilitating the Gaza border communities overrun by Hamas terrorists on October 7, and the Northern Rehabilitation Directorate. In addition, he will also be part of the team formulating the government’s plan for postwar Gaza.
