The Knesset plenum convened on Monday to officially approve the entry of United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa’ar into the government.
The approval marked the end of a swift procedure to bring Sa’ar and his party on board, after the government approved the move in a telephone vote on Sunday night.
The government is set to convene for its weekly meeting on Monday afternoon, and Sa’ar will likely participate.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sa’ar announced the move in a joint statement on Sunday evening. It marked a dramatic about-turn less than a week after a similar attempt failed less than a week earlier.
Sa’ar will serve as a minister-without-portfolio and a member of the National Security Cabinet. The parties did not sign a coalition agreement, and therefore, a source from the party confirmed that the party’s four MKs are not currently required to automatically support bills brought forward by the coalition.
The source added that the three MKs other than Sa’ar—Ze’ev Elkin, Sharren Haskel, and Mishel Buskila—will continue in their current Knesset roles.
Netanyahu and Sa’ar
Sa’ar first 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 and effective enough. Gantz eventually left the government in June.
In the joint statement on Sunday evening, 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 acknowledged that while in the past he had worked closely with the prime minister, there had also been years of a “personal and political schism.” However, after the October 7 massacre, this was “insignificant,” Sa’ar said.
Sa’ar added that he had concluded 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.”
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