Netanyahu reported to huddle with political advisers, seeks to poach Sa’ar
Likud believes Gantz’s National Unity partner wants to stay in government, won’t try to topple coalition; idea of likening Oct. 7 to Oslo reportedly emerged from these meetings
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held at least two meetings with top Likud lieutenants and advisers last week to discuss political maneuverings, including attempting to pry National Unity minister Gideon Sa’ar away from party head Benny Gantz, Hebrew media reported on Wednesday.
The meetings took place despite Netanyahu insisting that his focus remains on defense matters, while bashing any trace of political jockeying as unseemly given the national emergency.
The prime minister huddled with Justice Minister Yariv Levin, David Amsalem who is a junior minister in the Justice Ministry, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, and other advisers, the report in the Haaretz daily said.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office told Haaretz that Netanyahu and his associates have been pleased with hawkish rhetoric from Sa’ar, a former Likud minister, in recent weeks and want to absorb him back into their camp. Sa’ar was pushed out of Likud after challenging Netanyahu for the leadership of the party several years ago.
Sa’ar told Channel 13 last weekend that the National Unity party “mustn’t quit the war cabinet during the war,” with Likud interpreting this as the lawmaker intending to remain part of the government for some time, according to the report.
The officials who spoke to Haaretz believe Sa’ar would not go along with an effort to topple the government through a vote of no confidence, which may deter others and keep the government alive.
Gantz, who leads National Unity with Sa’ar, would easily be able to form a coalition with opposition parties and oust Netanyahu if elections were held now, according to recent polling.
Netanyahu’s political future was also discussed in the meetings, according to the report.
The paper said recent messaging from Netanyahu likening the toll of October 7 to that of the Oslo Accords came out of one of these political-planning meetings.
Netanyahu took flak from both the opposition and from within Likud Tuesday after he was widely quoted a day earlier as telling lawmakers that the deal with the Palestinians in the 1990s had caused as many deaths as Hamas’s October 7 massacres, “though over a longer period.”
Some commentators have viewed Netanyahu’s statement as an attempt to lessen criticism of his responsibility for the events of October 7. Other reports said Netanyahu’s comments had come in response to outgoing Labor chair Merav Michaeli arguing that only a peace deal and a vision of a two-state solution could resolve the current situation.
On top of that, the Biden administration believes Netanyahu has entered “campaign mode,” as evidenced by his escalating rhetoric against the Palestinian Authority and refusal to accept the body as a viable option to govern the Gaza Strip after the war, two US officials told the Times of Israel this week.
Support for Netanyahu, already sliding before the war over his handling of the controversial judicial overhaul, has plunged since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, in which terrorists rampaged through southern communities, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 hostages to Gaza.
Some critics of Netanyahu linked the failure to stop the shock incursion to the prime minister’s policy of passing along Qatari funds to appease Hamas and the now-disproven conception that the terror group had been deterred by previous rounds of fighting.
According to a Channel 13 news survey published on Friday, 70 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign as prime minister.
Among them, 41% believe he should quit at the end of the war, while 31% believe he should do so immediately. Only 19% of respondents said he is fit to continue in the position, while 9% answered that they didn’t know what he should do.
The poll found that Netanyahu still had support among his Likud base, with 70% of the ruling party’s voters responding that he should remain in the role even after the war is over, as opposed to 20% who believe he should resign at the end.
None of the Likud voters said he should resign immediately, while 10% answered they didn’t know what he should do.
As his popularity dissipates, the prime minister faces potential challenges for the Likud leadership, as fears mount within the party that it could face a devastating defeat at the next election.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
