According to reports, Sa’ar will serve as a minister-without-portfolio and as a member of the National Security Minister. He will also join smaller security consultations. Sa’ar’s number two, MK Ze’ev Elkin, will also become a minister-without-portfolio.
Sa’ar’s four MKs raises the size of the governing coalition from 64 to 68. This means that the coalition’s two far-right parties, the Religious Zionist Party (seven MKs) and Otzma Yehudit (six MKs), will no longer be able to threaten the coalition’s majority in certain votes in exchange for political concessions.
The move will also serve as a constant threat against Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as his potential replacement is now a member of the government and cabinet.
Sa’ar joined the government alongside then party leader MK Benny Gantz on October 11. Sa’ar broke away from Gantz’s party in March and left the government over claims that Israel’s policies in Gaza were not aggressive nor effective. Gantz eventually left the government in June.
Netanyahu and Sa’ar’s statement
Is a joint statement, Netanyahu said that when Sa’ar was in the government, he had been “deeply impressed” with his “broad view” and his ability to “propose creative solutions to complicated problems.”
Netanyahu praised Sa’ar for “rising to the occasion and ignoring every other consideration.”
Sa’ar said that he was entering the government “without a coalition agreement”. He acknowledged that while in the past the had worked closely with the prime minister, their were also years of a “personal and political schism,” but that after the October 7 massacre, this was “insignificant.”
Sa’ar added that he had come to the conclusion that there was “no point in continuing to sit in the opposition,” in which “most of its members’ views regarding the war are different and even far from my positions.”
