Sa'ar Returns to Likud After Five Years

The Likud Central Committee convened today (Wednesday) at the Exhibition Gardens in Tel Aviv to approve the framework agreement for the merger between the "New Hope" party led by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and the Likud. The minister, who returned to the party center for the first time since his departure about five years ago, arrived at the event amid tensions with Defense Minister Israel Katz. In Likud, they claim that Katz is working to thwart the inclusion of Sa'ar's people, partly due to the "succession battle" for the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

MK Tally Gotlieb, who opposed the merger, attacked in her speech the very armor expected for Sa'ar. "Gideon Sa'ar is welcome to run in primaries like any candidate," she said, "but armor for a person who said terrible things against the Prime Minister, led us to five election campaigns, and brought upon us the Attorney General – is not entitled to armor." Her words drew contemptuous shouts from the audience, and one activist even shouted at her: "You're behaving aggressively and rudely. You have the status of a chick in Likud."

Sa'ar took the podium immediately afterward, wearing a black kippah, and opened with the blessing "who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this time." According to him, the decision to return to Likud was made from a sense of mission, despite the personal costs. "We knew what they would say in the studios, and I knew it wouldn't end with me – that it would reach the family, the children, the wife," he said. "I knew exactly what price I would pay, but it was clear to me that given the moment we are in, this is the right decision."

A senior Likud official said that among party activists, there is growing concern that the inclusion of Sa'ar's people in the movement's institutions will harm their power ahead of the Likud conference to be held in November, where internal elections for all party institutions will take place. "Why give Gideon Sa'ar a prize for his decision to leave Likud?" wondered one activist. "If he wants – let him return alone, without bringing another hundred central committee members."

Despite the opposition, the assessment in the party is that the unity agreement will be approved. Finance Committee Chairman MK Hanoch Milwidsky even tweeted that the agreement is expected to pass "by a large majority."