Kadima Coalition: Full Gas in Neutral
Excerpt;
Olmert’s Kadima party is acting as if a coalition is in the works, but potential partners’ demands make it more likely that Olmert will at best form a government at the last minute.
Olmert, Peretz Agree on Largest Government Ever
Excerpts;
Israel will have its largest government in history with 27 ministers by the end of the week, according to an agreement reached on Thursday night between Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor chairman Amir Peretz, sources close to both men said Saturday.
Olmert and Peretz met after 11 p.m. at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor in Jerusalem to discuss the portfolios that each party would receive and to expedite coalition talks that had progressed slowly in recent days. Kadima negotiating team chairman Yoram Turbowitz, Labor team members David Liba’i and Rahel Turjeman and mediator Uri Shani participated in the two-hour meeting.
According to the deal, Labor will be given the Defense Ministry for Peretz, the Education Ministry for Yuli Tamir, the Agriculture Ministry for Shalom Simhon, the National Infrastructure Ministry, the Tourism Ministry and two Ministries-without-Portfolio. Peretz is expected to recommend to the Labor central committee that MKs Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Ophir Paz-Pines, Isaac Herzog and Eitan Cabel be given the portfolios.
Peretz had dinner with Ben-Eliezer on Saturday night and apparently informed him that he wanted him to return to the National Infrastructure Ministry. MK Ephraim Sneh, who is a former general will assist Peretz as deputy defense minister, a title he held under Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Herzog, who will apparently be a Minister-without-Portfolio, and MKs Avishay Braverman and Ami Ayalon, who will not be ministers, were disappointed by news of the agreement.
But the big losers of the deal were Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who will have to give up the post he has held for the past four years, and MK Uriel Reichman, to whom former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had promised the Education portfolio. Olmert will meet with both men on Sunday and will offer Reichman the Justice portfolio. Reichman’s aides said he would reject the offer and instead return to the presidency of the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center that he founded.
Lieberman Rejects Cabinet’s Basic Guidelines
Secret Meeting Ends With 7 Labor Ministers [Supposedly: But the Haggling Ain’t Over Yet!]
Peretz ‘Will Have to Learn Quickly’
Excerpt;
Members of the defense establishment are not afraid of expressing themselves over the probable new incoming boss, Amir Peretz. His future conduct is regarded as a ‘mystery,’ and he is being given a chance, but under the carpet, a lack of faith is hiding.
Kadima, Labor Frustrated by Talks
Commentary;
Despite all of the “smiling faces”, the positioning and machinations are far from over and once a government is formed, it won’t last long.
A few more attacks like Tel Aviv this past week and Olmert’s regime will begin to crumble, despite the boastful, twisted, demented and arrogant comments of his advisors that “increased terror will make it easier to pass the ‘convergence’ plan.”
Can we imagine … Amir Peretz, Defense Minister? Man, does he have a lot to learn. It’s not like when Moshe Arens was DM under former PMs Menachem Begin, Yitzchak Shamir and Benjamin Netayahu. Arens was not a military man, but he had the Ministerial credentials, something that Peretz does not now have. And if he tries to strong-arm Defense Ministry bureaucrats and long-timers as he did the Labor Party through the infiltration of Histadrut hacks into the ministry, the Yom Kippur War “battle of the generals” will seem a picnic by comparison.
And what about Shaul Mofaz, who loses BIG by Peretz becoming DM? His political peers’ predictions apparently fulfilled, he can’t say that he didn’t see it coming. MB
Actually Arens did NOT have ministerial experience the first time he was made Defense Minister. What he did have that Peretz does not was extensive civilian and govermental experience related to the military. This included a Ph.D in aerospace engineering, significant contributions to Israel’s military industries and the chairmanship of the Knesset Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense.
Peretz, on the other hand, is being made DM because he is not qualified for ANY important ministerial position, and this is apparently considered the least bad option since he can have a deputy minister with experience that can actully run the show.