A few years ago, Ofer Shelah and I wanted to film a "road trip" about Gideon Sa'ar. I saw potential in him for a candidacy for prime minister. I wrote about it back in 2005 for the magazine "Khutret" (The Name Will Avenge Its Blood), and Ofer gave me the look of, "You and your political bookkeeping again.".
The truth is, he didn't understand what I wanted from his life. He found Sa'ar to be a particularly boring politician, and my assessment of him seemed extremely delusional. Nevertheless, I dragged him and a camera crew to Rabin Square.
Sa'ar was then in the midst of his great political maneuver to the left, he tried to endear himself to the center-left, promoted women's rights, spoke in favor of gays and went to speak at a rally in memory of Yitzhak Rabin. A right-winger in a sea of leftists. We interviewed him a little before, a little after and we knew that we had a truly extraordinary product in our hands, perhaps unprecedented. The most boring interview on earth.
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I still tried to save the item (and my lost honor) and repeatedly offered Saar cool suggestions (let's play soccer together with students, he was the Minister of Education), but in the end I had to back down.
You will hear many interpretations in the coming days about Gideon Saar's decision not to approve the new bylaw for the Tel Aviv municipality and to effectively close Tel Aviv's supermarkets. One interpretation I recommend you strongly reject - that Gideon Saar thought it was bad for him politically.
There is nothing Saar does in life that hasn't passed every test in his mind first - how does that help me politically? When he invited journalists ("But come without cameras, just for fun") to parties where he served as a DJ, that was also politics, when he suddenly goes to the Jordan Valley and declares that it should now be annexed to Israel, that's politics (Boogie Ya'alon peeks over his shoulder) and I even dare to raise the suspicion that the Geula Eban story passed the political clearance test for him.
Somehow it also came out that she came at a time when stories about other women in his life were starting to emerge, that fake letter (which Saar and his associates worked hard to erase from the media. To this day, he hasn't said a word publicly on the subject, and not by chance). Now there are claims that he's also getting stronger (I find it hard to believe), the masses of religious functionaries of the Likud will surely love that.
You can assume that if Sa'ar had thought for a moment that the rejection of the Tel Aviv municipality's bylaw would harm him politically, this law would not have been rejected, or in the worst case, the decision would have come from the Interior Ministry's legal bureau, with the minister just abroad and being communicated through dry spokesperson statements, which would not say a word, God forbid, about the rejection, but rather about comments the ministry has and ongoing dialogue with the municipality.
Instead, the Minister of the Interior happily skips into the News 2 studio to discuss his scandalous decision.
After Rubi Rivlin's victory in the presidential campaign, many justifiable accolades were attached to Saar. He ran Rubi, contributed to his election, and bravely came out against Netanyahu's ugly tricks.
In Netanyahu's dialing area, there were reports of very strong winds in Saar's direction. The lady is boiling, those close to the book knew, Bibi is mad, he is sure to run against him. What was not reported was what Saar thinks of Netanyahu. There is a considerable amount of deception in everything related to the attitude of senior figures in the political system towards Netanyahu.
If the public knew what Yisrael Katz, Yvette Lieberman, Yair Lapid, Gilad Erdan, Moshe Kahlon (with him it's a little clearer) and their friends think about the prime minister, the earth would shake. If Gideon Sa'ar were to say publicly what he thinks about Netanyahu, they would never speak again in their lives.
This is not what, God forbid, brought Sa'ar into conflict with Netanyahu. At least, not only that.
Saar's 'what's in it for me politically' test certainly signaled that a confrontation with Netanyahu positions him as a future competitor, elevating him a step above Katz, Hanegbi, Erdan and the other claimants to the succession.
In this respect, Saar was right, but why the hell do we have to pay the price?
Source: http://drucker10.net/?p=2237
