As Binyamin Netanyahu flew to Washington for the unveiling of the ambitious Trump Middle East peace proposal, he was already hearing criticism from coalition partners in his government.
But the first to back the prime minister up on the eve of his meeting with the US president was Foreign Minister Gideon Saar — formerly his bitter rival.
“After two years of war,” wrote Saar in a sort of indirect response to Itamar Ben-Gvir’s resignation threat, “it is the clear interest of Israel to end the fighting and achieve its goals.”
It’s safe to say that had Saar not returned to the Likud ranks at the start of 5785, Netanyahu would be starting 5786 facing snap elections.
Last year, Netanyahu was at the mercy of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who left the government in protest of the second hostage deal. Saar’s addition to the right-wing government at the head of his four-strong faction not only weakened the far right’s hand but took the fire out of the protest movement and the opposition benches.
And there’s another angle to Saar’s return. Even at the height of his rivalry with Netanyahu, Saar never lashed out against the chareidim, not even for the sake of appearances. And his current position as a key coalition power broker is one reason Shas and Degel HaTorah still believe that if consensus is reached in the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee on a bill regulating the draft status of Torah learners, there will be a majority for the legislation in the Knesset.
When Saar was appointed to the role of foreign minister one year ago, his former opposition colleagues derided him, predicting that Netanyahu wouldn’t give him room to breathe.
In fact, Saar is involved even in the most sensitive and personal front for Netanyahu — relations with the Trump administration. A month ago, on the eve of the strike in Qatar, Saar was in Washington alongside Netanyahu’s closest confidant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
In the wake of Trump’s big announcement in Washington, let’s talk about the war in Gaza. I want to go back to a conversation I had with you ten years ago, when you were a cabinet minister. You said then that until we enter Gaza and cleanse it of Hamas, there will never be a solution.
My question to you is: Bottom line, will we achieve our goals in Gaza, despite Trump’s proposal and all the international pressure? Or will we have to give up on some of our aims?
Look, we waited too long. And to be precise, our conversation took place a little over ten years ago, when I was interior minister, and I had genuine criticisms of the way Operation Protective Edge ended. I thought we should have aimed for the defeat of Hamas and the demilitarization of the strip. It’s very complicated.
But the cabinet decision [to eradicate Hamas], out of recognition of center of gravity and organization of Hamas, both militarily and symbolically, was clear. The government gave the order, outlined the goals, and now IDF soldiers are fighting to carry them out. I think at this juncture it would be better to do less talking, let the IDF do the work on the ground, and let the prime minister handle the politics. I trust the prime minister to steer us toward the objective.
You served as foreign minister through one of the most complex years in Israel’s history. We had one of our finest hours, displaying capabilities that stunned not only our enemies and allies but ourselves as well. But it was also one of the toughest periods for Israel diplomatically.
There is an attempt to lay siege to Israel diplomatically, but Israel isn’t isolated. To give you an idea, I’ll just describe the events of the week before the chagim. We had a visit by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Of all the countries in the world, he chose to visit us, a second time. And believe me, other Western countries, and all the more so Middle Eastern ones, would give a lot for a visit from the US secretary of state.
Sometimes it seems that all we have left is America, and even that with a grain of salt.
But that’s the thing, you’re wrong. To give a current example — just after the new year, Fiji, a country located in the South Pacific, became the seventh country to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
