Ofira Koopmans -
Gideon Saar wasted no time in announcing he would challenge caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership of Israel’s right-wing Likud party.
In a risky move, Saar did what no other member of Israel’s ruling conservative party has dared do in over a decade: He openly called for a Likud leadership vote, hours after the country’s attorney-general last month announced Netanyahu would be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate suspected corruption cases. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 television, the former education and interior minister called his former boss, often hailed as “King Bibi” by loyalists, “one of the world’s greatest statesmen today.” Netanyahu failed twice to form a government following parliamentary elections in April and September and would fail again a third, fourth, or even fifth time, he said.
The 53-year-old tries to present himself as more statesmanlike and as having more integrity than Netanyahu but is no less right-wing. He staunchly opposes a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians and supports annexing Israel’s West Bank settlements. He has called for the annexation of the Jordan Valley and for building the controversial E-1 area between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
The Tel Aviv-born lawyer was first brought into politics 20 years ago by Netanyahu, who appointed him cabinet secretary in 1999. Saar won his first Likud seat in Israel’s parliament in 2003. As education minister in the 2009-13 second Netanyahu government, he advanced Jewish heritage classes and plans to grant university status to a college in Ariel, Israel’s largest settlement in the northern West Bank. During his brief spell as interior minister from March 2013 until late 2014, he maintained a generally hardline policy against migrants from Africa who infiltrated Israel via the border with Egypt. In late 2014, Saar took a time out from politics to spend more time with his new wife, leading Israeli Channel Kan 11 television news anchor Geula Even, and their young children, but finally made his comeback in this year’s April elections.
An opinion poll published on Channel 11 Kan television late on Sunday found that if Netanyahu continued to lead Likud, its strongest rival, the centrist Blue and White party of former military chief Benny Gantz, would win 35 seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, against 31 for Likud. If Saar were to lead Likud into the upcoming March 2 elections, the party would win 27 seats, against 34 for Blue and White. However, the right-wing, ultra-Orthodox bloc of which Likud forms a part, would be stronger under Saar. — dpa
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