Gideon Sa'ar

Few politicians in Israel have traveled as winding a path as Gideon Sa'ar, and on JudgeMarket the public's verdict on him draws on both sides of that path. He was elected to the Knesset for Likud in 2003 and served as education minister and interior minister; in 2019 he challenged Netanyahu for the Likud leadership and lost, at the end of 2020 he broke away and founded New Hope, and in the Bennett–Lapid government he served as justice minister and deputy prime minister. In 2024 he returned to Netanyahu's government, has been foreign minister since November of that year, and in March 2025 signed the merger of New Hope with Likud. His supporters see him as a serious, experienced statesman who combines institutional gravitas with a willingness to cross lines; his critics on the right remember his revolt against Netanyahu and his time in government with the left, and his critics in the center, his pledge not to sit in a government headed by Netanyahu. As foreign minister he is Israel's face amid growing international isolation: he called the wave of recognition of a Palestinian state in September 2025 a reward for Hamas, and he answered the sanctions Britain imposed on the settlements in September 2026 by announcing countermeasures, including an order to close the British consulate in Jerusalem, which in October, under a last-minute arrangement, was converted into a scaled-down mission. He heads into the October 27 election without a party of his own: under the merger agreement, seventh place on the Likud list was reserved for him, and like Israel Katz, his predecessor at the Foreign Ministry, he did not have to compete in the primary. His political weight has risen and fallen with each election cycle and realignment, so a notable diplomatic achievement or a senior portfolio in the next government is what will decide whether he is seen as a front-rank Likud heavyweight or as someone whose place rests on a reserved slot.