Gideon Sa'ar

In October 2019, amid coalition talks, Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated he was considering holding a snap election for party leadership. In a terse tweet, Sa'ar responded "I'm ready." After Netanyahu decided against holding a leadership election, Sa'ar confirmed he would run in the next election and would support Netanyahu until then.

On 24 November 2019, Sa'ar asked the Likud Central Committee to schedule a party leadership race within two weeks, allowing the winner to try to form a coalition government before the Knesset would be dissolved which would trigger new Knesset elections, the third in a year. After the Knesset was dissolved and elections set for 2 March 2020, leadership elections were set for 26 December 2019. Sa'ar received the endorsement of a few Likud Members of Knesset, including Haim Katz, the powerful head of the Likud central committee. Netanyahu was endorsed by Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan while Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein declined to endorse either candidate.

On 3 April 2017 Sa'ar announced his return to politics and intention to run in the next Likud primaries. He was seen as a potential candidate for party leadership and eventually prime minister.

In September 2017, The Jerusalem Post ranked him 5th on its "50 most influential Jews" list, calling him the "heir apparent to the Likud throne". In September 2018, he was ranked 25th along with fellow Likud members Yisrael Katz and Gilad Erdan.

In September 2014, Sa'ar announced that he would be resigning his post before the next election. He said he would still remain a member of the Likud. On 17 September, he took a hiatus from politics. He left the Knesset on 5 November, and was replaced by Leon Litinetsky.

In May 2013, Sa'ar married Israeli news anchor Geula Even, with whom he has two children, David and Shira. Sa'ar has another two children, Alona and Daniela, from his first wife, as well as one grandchild.

In 2012, he again gained the most votes in Likud primaries, and entered the 19th Knesset.

In December 2008 Sa'ar won the Likud primaries for its list going into the 2009 elections, giving him second place on the Likud list after leader Binyamin Netanyahu. He retained his seat, and was appointed Minister of Education on 31 March.

After retaining his seat in the 2006 elections he was reappointed Group Chairman and also became a deputy Knesset speaker.

Sa'ar worked as an aide to the Attorney General between 1995 and 1997, and then as an aide to the State Attorney until 1998. Sa'ar was appointed cabinet Secretary in 1999 and again from 2001–2 after Likud's Ariel Sharon won a special election for Prime Minister. In the 2003 elections he won a seat in the Knesset on Likud's list, and was appointed Likud Parliamentary Group Chairman as well as Chairman of the Coalition. He was opposed to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, and attempted to pass a bill demanding a referendum on the subject.

As a teenager, Saar joined the ultra-nationalist Tehiya movement protesting the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the Sinai peninsula as per the 1982 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

Gideon Moshe Sa'ar (Hebrew: גִּדְעוֹן סַעַר ; born 9 December 1966) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the political party Likud between 2003 and 2014, and held cabinet posts of Education Minister and then of Minister of the Interior, from 2009 to 2014. In April 2019, he was re-elected to the 21st Knesset.

Gideon Moshe Zarechansky (later Sa'ar) was born in Tel Aviv. His mother, Bruriah, is of Bukharian Jewish descent, while his father, Shmuel, was a Jew born in Argentina who immigrated to Israel in the mid-1960s, settled in Sde Boker and became the personal physician of David Ben-Gurion. Sa'ar has two siblings, a brother and a sister. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces as an intelligence NCO in the Golani Brigade, Sa'ar studied political science at Tel Aviv University and then went on to study law at the same institution.