Labor and Kadima Set to Sign Coalition Agreement
Update: Labor-Kadima Signing Postponed [Over an issue With the Text of the Agreement]
Excerpts;
Kadima’s spokesman announced on Thursday that Labor and Kadima’s negotiating teams would meet at 3:30 p.m. in Kfar Hamaccabia in order to sign the coalition agreement between the two parties.
Labor Chairman Amir Peretz was finalizing the deal with Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in their Thursday meeting. In addition to the ministerial portfolios that Labor had already been offered, it was also offered the post of deputy defense minister.
Despite Peretz’s desire that he retain the power to allocate the portfolios to the Labor MKs of his choice, the final agreement will be presented either Friday or Sunday to the Labor Party’s Central Committee for approval.
Labor’s Central Committee must delegate the ministries of defense, education, agriculture, tourism, as well as two ministries without portfolios to its MKs.
Coalitionscape: Olmert’s Thin Skin [re: Deputy Ministers]
Likud MKs May Join Kadima for Senior Ministerial Posts
Excerpts;
Rumors that four Likud MKs – a third of the total – might join Kadima have been flying around for weeks. Supporters of Likud chair Benjamin Netanyahu have pointed an accusing finger at MKs Silvan Shalom, Limor Livnat, Danny Naveh and Michael Eitan. They claim interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected Livnat but would welcome the others and had even offered them jobs: a ministerial portfolio to Shalom, chairmanship of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to Eitan and a deputy minister or ambassador position to Naveh.
Commentary;
3 or 4 more Likud MKs with one foot out of the door? Michael Eitan looking for a safety-net if Likud won’t appoint him “temporary” chairman? Don’t they remember the buffoon act of Shaul Mofaz? (arrow down)
Kadima and Pensioners Sign Coalition Agreement
Kadima, Pensioners Form Single Parliamentary Bloc
Excerpts;
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party signed a deal with the Pensioners party on Wednesday in which the two agreed to form a single parlimetary bloc.
According to the terms of the agreement, the two parties will remain officially independent but will hold joint meetings and observe the same voting discipline.
“Olmert can now say ‘I have 36 Members of Knesset’,” a Pensioners party official said at the signing ceremony.
The Pensioners’ Party was granted two ministerial posts: The health ministry and a new portfolio, minister of pensioner affairs, said Rafi Eitan, the head of the party.
“I will run an independent department that will, over time, become a ministry that will deal with pensioner issues,” Eitan told Israel Channel 2 TV.
Olmert also agreed to appoint an additional Pensioners party member as chairman of the Knesset’s Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee and allocate NIS 130 million to the budget, cancelling the 1.5 percent cutback in pensions carried out in 2002.
Pensioners’ Party No. 2 Man Backs More Expulsions
Liberman Calls on Kadima to Forgo Coalition With Labor
Liberman; Slick like a fox? Playing on Olmert, Kadima reputation for dishonesty and total lack of integrity? Playing a card that a humiliated Peretz, Labor will seek revenge against Kadima at all costs, even at cost of defeating Olmert’s precious “convergence”? MB
Full Text;
Knesset Member Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beitenu party, has called upon Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to create a government coalition without the Labor party, which he characterized as an unreliable partner, “a broken reed,” in Liberman’s words.
Liberman instead suggested that Olmert put together “a center-right coalition, including Shas, Yisrael Beitenu and United Torah Judaism.” Such a government, Liberman said, “will be inexpensive as well as stable, and will handle the challenges facing the state much better.”
Peretz Tells of ‘Breach of Trust’ With Olmert
Full Text:
Labor Chairman Amir Peretz told his party on Tuesday that there had been a breach of trust between Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and himself.
“How can I work with you,” Peretz reportedly asked Olmert, “If you give me signed documents, and then I read in the morning newspapers that you have retracted them,” Israel Radio reported.
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