Netanyahu never went away after October 7. But now, courtesy of Sa’ar, he’s truly back
A bitter critic’s latest political zigzag stabilizes the coalition, leaves Gallant more vulnerable, and means Netanyahu need not worry about elections for the foreseeable future
David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of "Still Life with Bombers" (2004) and "A Little Too Close to God" (2000), and co-author of "Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin" (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).
For the first few minutes of the live televised presentation from the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday evening, the Israeli public might have been forgiven for thinking they were watching the wrong event.
Israel’s TV news anchors said they were screening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s welcome of Gideon Sa’ar — a former Likud minister, who became a leadership rival, then a very bitter political opponent, a minister again, and then an opponent again — back into his government.
But the camera only showed Netanyahu. And the prime minister said nothing about Sa’ar.
Instead, he delivered an overview, at once inspiring and self-serving, of the status of Israel’s seven-front war. He cited the crushing of Hamas in Gaza, “the elimination I ordered” of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday, and the just-completed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Plainly uplifted — as is the nation — by the stunning success of the IDF’s assault on Hezbollah over the past two weeks, Netanyahu radiated greater self-confidence than at any point since Hamas’s October 7 slaughter in southern Israel.
He said Israel’s enemies and friends were seeing the price that Israel exacts from those who harm it and were again recognizing Israel’s strength. “We are in the midst of great days,” he declared, because “we are changing the strategic reality in the Middle East… Israel is winning.”
At the same time, he warned, switching to a darker tone, there were still challenging, testing days ahead, which required “unifying the ranks” so that Israel could attain all of its war goals.
Only at that point did Netanyahu move on to the political business of the hour.
He said he had sought a wide and stable government when the war broke out, was pleased when Benny Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar joined on October 11, and was sorry when they left. But now, Sa’ar had accepted Netanyahu’s invitation to return. “The move contributes to our unity within, and our unity against our enemies,” he said stirringly.
He acknowledged their differences, but insisted that these were now in the past, hailing Sa’ar for rising to the occasion and setting aside “all other considerations.”
Finally, now, the camera pulled back, and Netanyahu stepped aside to bring Sa’ar into the shot, with a solemn handshake and the mutual patting of forearms.
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Sa’ar rejoined the coalition with a promised place on the decision-making security cabinet, but without a specific job and apparently with no signed agreement. For now, he will serve as a minister without portfolio.
Barely a week ago, he had confirmed Israeli politics’ worst-kept secret when he said Netanyahu had offered him Yoav Gallant’s job as defense minister, acknowledged that he had initially accepted it in principle, but said that he was turning it down because his looming arrival would be a distraction to those who were managing the war effort.
Netanyahu still wants to fire Gallant, who he briefly sacked in March 2023. Gallant continues neither to venerate nor kowtow to him, and is also refusing to advance legislation that would maintain the broad exclusion from military service of the ultra-Orthodox community – legislation demanded by the two ultra-Orthodox parties on whose majority the coalition depends.
Netanyahu may yet install Sa’ar in Gallant’s place. Or not.
He may take Sa’ar — whose New Hope party is heading for oblivion, polling at below the minimal threshold for any Knesset seats — back into Likud. Or not.
For Netanyahu, none of that matters too much right now. The important thing is that he owns Israeli politics again.
In a survey taken Sunday by Channel 12, the pro-Netanyahu bloc was still polling at only 49 of the 120 Knesset seats, but Likud was rising, as was Netanyahu’s approval rating. And that was before Sa’ar came aboard.
But the polling doesn’t much matter, either. What does, is that Sa’ar and his three New Hope colleagues lift Netanyahu’s current coalition from 64 to 68 in the Knesset. They stabilize the ruling bloc, making it less vulnerable to the threats of far-right ministerial hoodlum Itamar Ben Gvir, killing the already near non-existent prospect of an internal revolt should he fire Gallant, liberating the ultra-Orthodox no-service legislation… and thus staving off elections for the foreseeable future, possibly even until their scheduled date in October 2026.
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Precisely none of the audience for Sunday’s Netanyahu-Sa’ar political reality show has forgotten who was prime minister when Hamas invaded on October 7.
Much of the public, maybe most, has not forgiven Netanyahu for his culpability — in failing to prevent the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust — and for his refusal to accept responsibility for that. Much of the country likely will never forgive him.
For the 101 hostages in Gaza, Sa’ar’s return to government is a particularly bitter blow, since he has opposed the kind of deal that was taking shape before Netanyahu hardened his stance. Few of their families will have been comforted to hear Netanyahu promise that he and Sa’ar will work in close alignment, “and I intend to be helped by him in the forums that influence the management of the war.”
Much of the public may be offended and worse by Sa’ar’s return to the prime minister’s embrace, regarding this latest about-face as an act of cynical, personal expediency by a man who argued just a few years ago that there was nothing more important for Israel than to be rid of Netanyahu, who he accused of placing personal interests above those of the country.
But, hey, that’s politics.
And on Sunday night, Netanyahu proved — for the umpteenth time, but in unprecedented circumstances — that he is its master.
For almost a year, Netanyahu fought against calls to resign. He resisted the pressure for what would surely be a personally devastating state commission of inquiry into the October 7 catastrophe. He denounced those who demanded new elections as advocates of the enemy cause. He denigrated and sought to demonize all opponents, even as he talked endlessly of unity. He even accused the defense minister of adopting the Hamas narrative.
Netanyahu fought for his political life. And he survived.
Now, though, for the first time since October, his grip on the prime ministership is secure. Whatever the near future holds for Israel, Gideon Sa’ar’s return renders Netanyahu all but politically invulnerable.
He never went away. But now he’s truly back.
