Gideon Sa'ar joins Netanyahu's government as minister without portfolio

The Israeli government has unanimously approved the appointment of Knesset member Gideon Sa'ar, head of the New Hope Party, as a minister without portfolio.

"The government has now unanimously agreed to appoint Gideon Sa'ar as a minister without portfolio," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office noted on Sunday.

Voting among government ministers was conducted by phone, according to the statement. Earlier in the day, Israeli media reported that Sa'ar would join Netanyahu's government.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority suggested that Sa'ar might join the security cabinet, potentially becoming a partner in war management, though Netanyahu's office did not mention this.

There has been no official statement from Sa'ar.

A minister without portfa olio is a minister in the government without a responsibility to head any department in particular.

Conscription law, war policies

By joining the government with his four-seat party, Sa'ar 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.

Sa'ar joined Netanyahu's emergency government after October 7 but left in March, citing frustration with Netanyahu's war policies.

Shortly after the Israeli genocide in Gaza started, he infamously said that the blockaded enclave must be smaller at the end of the war.