Commentary;
In the world of Kadima, there are no valid promises, no honesty, no integrity. Even their prospective labor coalition partners seem to agree on this point. MB
Kadima, Labor Poised to Sign Agreement
Excerpts;
In the early hours of Monday morning, the Labor Party announced that it had come to an agreement with Kadima to raise the minimum wage by NIS 500, paving the way for Kadima and Labor to meet Monday morning to sign the coalition agreement.
The Gil Pensioners’ Party was also expected to sign an agreement with Kadima.
On Sunday, Kadima MK Uriel Reichman resigned from politics on Sunday after Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declined to appoint him to the Education Ministry.
He explained the move by saying that he had only joined Kadima in order to be education minister, a position that former prime minister Ariel Sharon had promised him when he joined the new party. Reichman claimed that Olmert reiterated the promise when he replaced Sharon, though Kadima officials stated that what Olmert told Reichman should not have been seen as a promise.
Earlier in the day, Reichman abstained from the government’s weekly meeting. Olmert expected to take the opportunity to inform Reichman that he would not be offered the education portfolio, which will apparently go to Labor MK Yuli Tamir.
Sources close to Olmert criticized Reichman’s cancellation of the meeting. “Pressure and threats won’t help here,” they said.
However wide the government might be, some disappointment among ministerial candidates was inevitable. Since Labor party chairman Amir Peretz will likely receive the Defense portfolio, Olmert met with current Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Sunday morning to ask Mofaz to resign. Olmert reportedly offered him an economic portfolio, and asked Mofaz to remain a member of the security and defense cabinet.
New Labor MK Shelly Yahimovic on Sunday called the coalition agreement reached on Thursday night between Olmert and Peretz “a significant political achievement for Labor.”
Yahimovic told Army Radio that while she would prefer that Peretz serve as prime minister and finance minister, seven portfolios for the second-largest party was “not inconsiderable.” The former journalist also said that she hoped that Labor’s presence in the coalition would help mitigate the “Gordian knot existing between wealth and political power”, a connection, she said, that “characterizes a number of Kadima officials.”
Likud MK Michael Eitan said the 27-member cabinet was a waste of money. “The only thing that will unite the coalition is the glue of corruption,” Eitan said. “A government that cannot set a personal example by advancing its diplomatic goals without bribing the parties in the coalition is shameful and will not win the public’s trust.”