| Olmert creates the biggest government ever Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is due to present his cabinet next week for approval by the 120-seat Knesset. Olmert's government will become the largest in the country's history - 27 ministers. The ruling coalition will include six parties - the centrist Kadima (Forward), the left Labor Party, the right Our Home Is Israel (NDI), the Pensioners Party, the ultra-religious Shas and another religious Yahadut HaTorah (Unity of the Torah) party.
According to Kadima members, such a diverse coalition with a majority in the Knesset will be stable and will help Olmert avoid early elections. However, it is hard to believe that parties with such different views will be able to coexist in the government.
Kadima intends to retain key portfolios (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade). But its leader Olmert still had to sacrifice equally important ministerial posts. Representatives of Labor, the second largest in the Knesset, will head six ministries: defense, education, agriculture, tourism, national infrastructure and the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs. Labor will also get the post of minister without portfolio, responsible for the work of the television and radio broadcasting department.
To satisfy the requests of all coalition partners, new posts are being created - the Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, to whom the second number on the Kadima election list, Shimon Peres, will be appointed, and the Minister for Pensioners, which will be the head of the Pensioners Party, Rafi Eitan.
Olmert cannot please everyone. Kadima member Professor Uriel Reichman notified the prime minister that he was leaving the Knesset. “I was the only one ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the post of Minister of Education. And Olmert ceded this post to Labor. I’m leaving because for me the trust of society is more important than any career plans,” Professor Reichman proudly slammed the door. He will go down in Israeli history as the deputy who spent the shortest time in the Knesset - seven days.
Shimon Peres also criticizes Olmert. “This is some kind of giveaway,” he commented on the coalition negotiations. In conversations with close people, Perez expresses fears that if this continues, the political future of the government “will be under threat very soon.”
However, the “broad coalition” of 84 deputies itself is currently under threat. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, number two on the NDI electoral list, Yuri Stern, said: “There are three conditions for our participation in the coalition. The first is the post of Secretary of Homeland Security. The second is the evacuation of Jewish settlements from the West Bank of Jordan only on the condition that the world community finally recognizes Israel's new borders after this. Third, the adoption of a law allowing not only religious, but also secular marriages.” In Israel, marriage can only be done with the permission of the rabbinate, and secular Israelis have to marry abroad.
Government legal adviser Menachem Mazuz recommended that Olmert not appoint NDI leader Avigdor Lieberman as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, since he is under police investigation on suspicion of corruption during the 1999 elections and illegal business ties in Russia. Lieberman himself blames certain political forces that are preventing him from taking the post of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “Before the start of coalition negotiations, information suddenly appears about some new turn in the investigation. But it’s clear that some people simply don’t want me to join the government.”
Negotiations in Israel are taking place against the backdrop of an aggravation of the situation in the Palestinian Authority. Throughout its territory, armed clashes are taking place between supporters of Fatah, led by the head of the autonomy, Mahmoud Abbas, and the radical Hamas movement. They began after the chairman of the Hamas Politburo, Khaled Mashaal, accused Abbas of collaborating with the West and trying to overthrow the Hamas government. Israeli media note that Palestine is on the brink of civil war. Maria GRISHINA, Jerusalem |
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