Israel: Right-wing opposition lawmaker Gideon Saar joins Netanyahu cabinet

Israeli opposition lawmaker Gideon Saar is rejoining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, the two said on Sunday, a step that is likely to strengthen the right-wing premier politically.

The hawkish Saar, who has been one of Netanyahu's most vocal critics in the past few years, is due to serve as a minister without a portfolio and have a seat in the prime minister's security cabinet, Israeli television station N12 said.

Expanding the government to include Saar's strengthens Netanyahu by making him less reliant on other members of his ruling coalition, which has been struggling in the polls as it presses on with a deadly war in Gaza and Lebanon.

"Difficult and trying days lie ahead," Netanyahu said in a statement. "This move contributes to our own unity and to our unity in the face of our enemies."

Saar and Netanyahu said they were putting their past rifts aside.

"We will work together, shoulder to shoulder, and I intend to seek his (Saar's) assistance in the forums that influence the conduct of the war," Netanyahu said.

More than 41,000 have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7. Meanwhile, Israeli aggression in Lebanon has killed over 700 alone this week, including Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah.

Opposed to Palestinian statehood and in favour of annexing the occupied West Bank, Saar is seen as further to the right than Netanyahu ideologically, but his joining the government is not widely expected to have a big impact on its security policy.

The former minister of justice has also advocated for the "reduction" of Gaza by the end of the war, as "whoever starts a war against Israel must lose territory".

Conscription law

By joining the government with his four-seat party, Saar will give Netanyahu a solid majority of 68 in the 120-seat parliament.

This could help solve one of the biggest political challenges the coalition faces in the next few months - passing a new military conscription law, after Israel's Supreme Court ruled in June that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students into the military.

The issue has widened cracks in Netanyahu's coalition, which relies on two ultra-Orthodox parties that want to keep their constituents in religious seminaries and out of a melting-pot army that might test their customs.

Saar's inclusion also reduces the power of the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has threatened to bring the government down if it ends the war in Gaza.

Saar, 57, was once a senior member in Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party but left after a failed leadership challenge.

Known more for poised pragmatism, rather than personal charisma, Saar broke away from Likud in 2020 to form his own party, becoming one of the most fierce critics of Netanyahu, who faces a long-running trial on corruption charges that he denies.

Following Israel's military onslaught in the Gaza Strip, he joined Netanyahu's emergency unity government but left in March, citing frustration with its war policies.