Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has rejected a condition from the Meretz party that she fire Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann in order for the party to join her prospective coalition.
"You cannot tell me who to appoint," her aides said she told a Meretz official, but they added that she would be willing to talk about individual points in his justice reform plan. Meretz also wants major changes in the budget to enable more funds for social projects.
Labor has made the same demands, and Foreign Minister Livni dined on the Rosh HaShanah holiday with Labor party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in an effort to improve relations and keep Labor in the government.
Her prospective coalition increasingly appears to hinge on wooing the Shas party, which has demanded more assistance for large families. The Shas party draws its support from religious and traditional Sephardic Jewish families which have an above average number of children. Shas leaders have indicated they are willing to forego the demand for higher child support payments in return for economic assistance through a different mechanism.
Livni plans to meet Shas party leaders on Thursday, but Likud chairman Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has been pressuring Shas to stay out of the proposed government and force new elections. If Livni fails in forming a coalition, President Shimon Peres could technically ask other party leaders to form a majority coalition, but the chances of their succeeding are considered nil, and elections would likely be the next step.
Foreign Minister Livni is continuing to try to shore up her own party, having met with Transportation and Road Safety Minister Shaul Mofaz, whom she defeated in leadership elections last month.
She has a little more than a month remaining to put together a coalition or face the probability of elections. Current polls show that Labor would be the biggest loser in elections and that Kadima would come close to maintaining its present strength. The biggest winner would be the Likud party, according to the surveys.