Netanyahu critic joins his coalition in boost for Israeli premier

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Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a deal with opposition politician Gideon Sa’ar to bring his right-wing New Hope party into government, in a move that will bolster the Israeli prime minister’s ruling majority.

The agreement comes as polls suggest that support for Netanyahu’s Likud party is recovering from the depths it plumbed after Hamas’s October 7 attack, as Israel has launched aggressive operations in both Lebanon, where it has delivered a series of devastating blows to Hizbollah, and Iran.

Sa’ar, a hawkish lawyer who began his career in Likud before falling out with Netanyahu and becoming one of the prime minister’s most vocal critics, will enter the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.

In a joint press conference on Sunday night, Netanyahu acknowledged the pair’s fractious history — which also included Sa’ar joining and then leaving the emergency government set up after October 7 — but said that the two men had decided to put those differences behind them.

“It’s not a secret that we have had disagreements in the past,” he said. “But since October 7, we have both put all the grudges of the past behind us.”

Sa’ar, who has staked out hawkish positions on the war, including urging a more aggressive approach both against Hizbollah and in Gaza, said he had decided to rejoin the government because he had concluded that “the majority of [the opposition’s] members hold views on the war that are different from mine”.

“This is a time when my duty is to contribute to decision-making,” he said.

The addition of New Hope’s four seats means that Netanyahu’s now six-party coalition with an assortment of rightwing, far-right and ultrareligious parties will control 68 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, weakening the ability of smaller partners to extract concessions.

Since the coalition came to power in 2022, both ultranationalist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have threatened to pull their parties out of government owing to disagreements with Netanyahu. But now neither would on their own be able to topple the government by doing so.

The arrival of Sa’ar could ultimately also pave the way for Netanyahu to replace his defence minister Yoav Gallant, who has been increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s leadership, including over his failure to reach a deal with Hamas to free the Israeli hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza.

Sa’ar announced last weekend that Netanyahu had offered him the position of defence minister, but said he had decided not take up the role at that time, as a change of minister in the middle of an escalation with Hizbollah would be an unnecessary distraction.

Netanyahu previously attempted to fire Gallant in March 2023 after Gallant warned that the polarisation sparked by a controversial judicial overhaul being pushed by Netanyahu’s coalition was undermining Israeli security, only to back down in the face of mass protests.