Likud hopeful Sa'ar takes hawkish stance on Palestine to unseat Netanyahu

Likud leadership candidate Gideon Sa’ar slammed his political opponent, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for agreeing to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, calling it an “illusion”. 

“Throughout the world they say that a two-state solution remains the path to an agreement, I have to say to you, this is not a position that helps anyone. Two-states in an illusion,” Sa’ar, Netanyahu’s only challenger in Likud, said at the International Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s conference in Jerusalem on Sunday.

For Israel experts, Sa'ar's statement wasn't surprising as taking harsh political positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict has almost always helped Israeli politicians to score electoral victories. 

"If you want to form a government in Israel you should criticise Palestinian State, if you want to be leader in Israel’s right wing you should call Palestinian State as threat, if you want to become leader at Israel’s right wing’s admiral: Likud, you must say that a Palestinian State can never exist," Selim Han Yeniacun, who has authored two books on Palestine-Israel conflict in Turkish, told TRT World. 

Sa’ar is well known in Israel for his hawkish stance on the question of Palestinian rights and sovereignty. He vehemently opposed the 2005 decision to evacuate the Jewish settlements in Gaza, and often advocated for violent attacks against Palestinians. 

Sa’ar also blamed Palestinians for jeopardising the two-state solution and “never being able to agree to a compromise, despite very generous offers”.

While Sa’ar is counting on his criticism of the two-state solution to put Netanyahu on the backfoot ahead of the Likud party leadership vote on December 26, Netanyahu is pitching the same two-state solution aloud, plus promising to annex the Jordan Valley in the West Bank in case he's re-elected. 

In addition to the recent allegations of bribery that caused serious problems for Netanyahu, Yeniacun said his failure to form the government on two subsequent occasions this year have severely damaged his reputation. 

"These incidents have caused a leadership crisis within Likud," Yeniacun said.  “Sa'ar is taking advantage of this situation by revolting against Netanyahu despite Netanyahu bringing Sa’ar to the the political stage 20 years ago."

But one move could backfire for Sa'ar — his close liaison with Hiam Katz, a senior Likud member who resigned as Israel's Minister of Welfare and Social Services after facing court trials in a corruption case similar to Netanyahu's.

The vote on December 26 will be the first real challenge to Netanyahu’s authority in both the Likud and the government. Although many experts predict that he'll prevail, Sa'ar continues to aim for a long shot, saying the longest-serving prime minister and the leader of Likud for 20 years had turned into an electoral liability. 

“He brought us four times to the government. But the writing is on the wall: there will be no fifth time,” Sa'ar recently told the media.