Translated material
Prime Minister without Ministers
Likud leaves Israeli government
The government crisis in Israel is worsening. On Sunday, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be presented with resignation letters by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Health Minister Dani Naveh, Education Minister Limor Livnat and Agriculture Minister Israel Katz. However, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom yesterday still doubted whether to resign or not.The decision that Likud would immediately leave the government was made by the leader of this party, Benjamin Netanyahu. And this despite the fact that Ariel Sharon remains in a hospital bed and his condition is very serious. On January 4, Sharon was hospitalized with a diagnosis of stroke and cerebral hemorrhage. The head of the Israeli government is still in a coma. Late last year, Sharon, the former founder and leader of the right-wing Likud party, left it to create a new centrist party, Kadima.
In a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, Likud press secretary Dmitry Shinelfarb explained: “The resolution on the resignation of ministers from the Likud party was adopted two weeks ago. Due to Sharon's illness, party leader Benjamin Netanyahu decided to delay the implementation of this decree in order to maintain political stability in the country. However, after Kadima ministers allowed Palestinian parliamentary elections to take place in Jerusalem, Likud can no longer remain in government.” Let us recall that the other day Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Israel is not against elections to the Palestinian Authority parliament being held in East Jerusalem as well.
With the departure of Likud ministers from the government, the internal political situation in Israel, already difficult due to Sharon’s illness, will become much more complicated. After Amir Peretz won the internal party elections in the left-wing Labor party at the beginning of November last year, ministers from this party also left the government.
The functions of the departing ministers, who have not yet been replaced by anyone, passed first to Prime Minister Sharon and then to Olmert. Now Olmert is an interim prime minister with 12 portfolios! After leaving the Likud government, he will already have 16 portfolios.
According to the government's legal adviser, Meni Mazuz, this situation cannot last long, and Olmert must distribute some of the responsibilities among other Knesset members. Already next week, Olmert will appoint six new ministers from the Kadima party. It is expected that three new ministers will be from among those who joined Kadima from Likud (Roni Bar-On, Zeev Boym and Yaakov Edri), and three more from Labor (Shimon Peres, Chaim Ramon and Dalia Itzik). However, the official announcement of the new appointments will be made next week, after the results of the Likud internal party elections, which took place yesterday in Israel, become known.
The list of Likud candidates for the 17th Knesset includes 92 activists. At the internal party elections (3,012 members of the party’s Central Committee participate in them), the order of who will be on the list under what number is determined, which determines the distribution of ministerial portfolios in the event of the party’s successful performance in the parliamentary elections on March 28.
This time, Likud decided to remember the illness of the Israeli Prime Minister: in connection with this, it was decided not to accompany the internal party elections with festive treats. Dmitry Shinelfarb noted in a conversation with VN: “The resignation of ministers from Likud will not affect the internal party elections in any way. Netanyahu was elected leader of the party, and the second place in the party was reserved for former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. The remaining seats will be distributed according to the decision of those members of the Likud Central Committee who will come to the elections. We expect that, despite the rain, 90% of the Central Committee members will take part in the voting.”
The Labor party is also gradually returning to active political activity. Internal party elections in Labor, which should determine the pre-election list of candidates for the Knesset, are scheduled for next week. The exact date has not yet been determined.