Sa’ar denies PM approached him to serve as defense minister

Gideon Sa’ar says he has not been contacted by Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as defense minister, following a report that the prime minister has been mulling offering him the cabinet position currently held by Likud’s Yoav Gallant in order to bring him back into the coalition.

“It is not correct that I received an offer like that… to serve as defense minister,” Sa’ar tells reporters ahead of his New Hope party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Last week, Kan News reported that Netanyahu has been discussing the possibility with his associates.

Sa’ar announced his party’s departure from the coalition in March after his demand to be admitted to the high-level war cabinet was denied. He has since harshly criticized the government’s management of the war in Gaza and has said he would be willing to make “concessions” to create a right-wing bloc opposing Netanyahu.

Last month, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman claimed that he had been approached with a proposal that he take over the post of defense minister. Netanyahu’s Likud party denied that any such proposal had been made.

Members of the government have called on Netanyahu several times to fire Defense Minister Gallant and last Sunday the prime minister reportedly accused him of working to topple the government during a heated cabinet meeting. Associates of Netanyahu have reportedly been deliberating Gallant’s possible ouster in the coming months, according to an unsourced Channel 12 report aired last week.

According to the report, Netanyahu’s inner circle considers Gallant a renegade within the coalition due to positions that have often put him at odds with the premier, including on Haredi conscription, the war with Hamas in Gaza and the handling of disagreements with the US administration.