Sa’ar said set to rejoin Likud in coming days, bolstering Netanyahu
Foreign minister, who left party years ago amid dispute with prime minister, reported to have agreed on folding his New Hope into ruling party
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, the leader of the coalition’s New Hope party, is set to return to the Likud, years after quitting the party over a falling out with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a Sunday television report.
The development is expected in the coming days, according to Channel 12 news, and would see New Hope’s three other lawmakers also able to join Likud. However, the report said that Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, of New Hope, was unlikely to follow Sa’ar. Haskel did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Times of Israel.
A source with knowledge of the issue told The Times of Israel on Sunday that when New Hope joined the Netanyahu-led governing coalition earlier this year, the sides had agreed to hold merger talks at some point in the future.
“There is nothing new on the subject. As is known, the possibility of merging parties was discussed in the negotiations that preceded the signing of the coalition agreement between the Likud and New Hope,” the source said.
“In short, such a possibility exists, as is known, and it was agreed between the parties to discuss it in the future. Nothing was agreed upon,” the source said, adding that no timetable for implementation had been discussed.
Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu and Sa’ar had agreed to cut short a planned period of adaption when New Hope joined the government, enabling Likud to absorb the former’s members. As part of the arrangement, Sa’ar will have one spot reserved on the Likud roster between the 20th and 30th places and another between the 30th and 40th.
For Netanyahu, bringing in Sa’ar to the Likud would bolster the prime minister’s efforts to pass two key pieces of legislation — the 2025 budget and a contentious bill dealing with the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Israelis into the army.
It will also serve to neutralize the Sa’ar’s attempts to break with the coalition on issues such as the judicial overhaul, controversial legislation that in 2023 prompted months of mass protests until it was put on hold, and then dropped from the agenda by the start of the Gaza war in October that year. Coalition lawmakers, led by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, have recently called for restarting that process.
Passing the 2025 budget would also more or less secure Netanyahu as prime minister until the end of his term in 2026, Channel 12 assessed.
Both the budget and the ultra-Orthodox draft bill have caused divisions in the coalition.
Sa’ar began his political career with Likud and became one of its most prominent members, but his rising popularity and other disputes drove him and Netanyahu apart, causing him to quit politics in 2014. He later returned with a vow to not politically collaborate with Netanyahu again.
Nonetheless, he 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. New Hope quit the alliance with Gantz in March and bowed out of the coalition weeks later, but rejoined Netanyahu for a second time in September. He was appointed foreign minister in November.
Polls have shown New Hope falling short of the vote threshold needed to return to the Knesset if elections were held now.
One such survey, published Sunday by the Kan public broadcaster, was the latest to show Netanyahu’s governing coalition falling well short of the support needed to return to power were elections held today. It also showed a potential party headed by former prime minister Naftali Bennett surpassing Netanyahu’s Likud as the largest, reflecting wide displeasure with the current government and its handling of the war.
War erupted on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The thousands of terrorists who burst into the south of the country also abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Repeated polls have indicated that a majority of Israelis back ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 100 hostages in Gaza — a tradeoff Netanyahu has rejected, arguing that it would allow for Hamas to reconstitute.
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down the government if he agrees to the kind of hostage deal currently under discussion which would end the war before Hamas has been completely destroyed.
Israel’s next elections are scheduled for October 2026 but could be earlier if the coalition collapses or moves to call a snap vote.
