Minister Gilad Erdan, who is considered close to PM Netanyahu, may be tapped to replace outgoing Minister Gidon Saar as Minister of the Interior.
Saar shocked the Likud political world this week when he announced that he is temporarily retiring from politics. Saar is seen by many as the challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu for the position of Prime Minister.
Saar’s retirement means the game of musical chairs is about to begin.
Gilad Erdan is likely give up the Communications Ministry and take over Ministry of the Interior.
Until Saar’s announcement, Erdan was considering taking on the position of Israel’s ambassador to the UN.
Limor Livnat and Yuval Steinitz will then compete over Erdan’s Communications Ministry seat.
Yariv Levin, Gila Gamliel and Tzachi HaNegbi will then compete to be appointed full ministers to take over either Livnat’s or Steinitz’s current ministerial positions.
Internally, some Likud member think Saar chose to quit, so he could position himself to join Moshe Kachalon and run against the Likud. They believe that polls showed the two doing well if they ran together.
Saar said he is quitting so he can spend more time with his family.
No one in the government really wants elections right now, but it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy when everyone is talking about it.
Netanyahu hinted in a closed forum for Likud activists, that elections may be approaching.