Gideon Sa'ar responded to opposition leader Yair Lapid's claims of his inexperience for the Defense Minister position, stating that Lapid had previously offered him the role in an X/Twitter post on Thursday that Lapid had previously offered him the role.
Reports of leaks from negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gideon Sa'ar have suggested that Netanyahu is considering replacing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with United Right chairman Gideon Sa'ar.
These discussions have sparked sharp criticism from Israeli officials. MK Benny Gantz warned that such a deal "severely endangers Israeli security," while MK Gadi Eisenkot called Sa'ar "unqualified" for the role in an interview on Kan Radio.
Lapid criticized Israel's political landscape and condemned Arye Deri for attempting to replace Israel’s Defense Minister with someone "inexperienced" during a speech at the “Social Justice for the Rehabilitation of Israel” conference on Thursday.
He also commented on the potential appointment, stating, "If Arye Deri, in the middle of a war, is capable of trying to replace the Defense Minister—removing a security professional as experienced as Yoav Gallant and replacing him with someone with no experience in the field—it means our politics has lost its sanity."
"The fact that Deri and Goldknopf even think they can replace the Defense Minister during a war, a war that their voters are evading, with ten thousand wounded and seven hundred dead, just so that Gideon Sa’ar will help them pass a draft-dodging law, represents moral bankruptcy and a complete breakdown of trust," he added.
MK Gideon Sa'ar responded to Lapid's criticism, dismissing his claims of having extensive security cabinet experience.
"In reality, he’s only participated in two, for a total of three years. In contrast, I’ve been involved in five security cabinets, three of them as a minister, and spent many years on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, including the Intelligence and Secret Services Subcommittee. Even during my break from politics, I was a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies. My entire adult life has been dedicated to these issues," he stated.
Sa'ar added that anyone who has listened to Lapid over the past year, during the most challenging war in Israel’s history, has been left astonished by his "zero insights, zero depth, and zero strategic understanding." He questioned Lapid's knowledge of security and referenced his past role as Finance Minister, saying, "What did he know about economics when he was appointed Finance Minister?"
Fit for prime minister
According to Sa'ar, both Bennett and Lapid had previously offered him the Defense Ministry position during negotiations for the "Government of Change."
Furthermore, when Bennett briefly stepped away from coalition negotiations, Lapid once offered Sa'ar a rotation as Prime Minister during Operation Guardian of the Walls. Sa'ar rejected the offer immediately, as forming a government would have required the support of a joint list of voters.
Sa'ar also claimed that over the years, Lapid had told him in personal conversations that he considered him one of the three politicians in Israel qualified to be Prime Minister, alongside himself and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman.