MK Shaul Mofaz said Sunday that Kadima should consider joining the coalition and struck out at his political rival Tzipi Livni. “She’s a nice person, you can sit and have a drink with her,” Mofaz said about Livni, “but this isn’t a club. The ability to make tough decisions just doesn’t exist with her. It’s tragic,” he told Army Radio.
Ever since the last elections, the rumor has been that Mofaz would leave the opposition with several members of his party and join the coalition. The government has also promoted a law which would allow seven MKs to break off from a party and join another party, which many see as a ploy to allow Mofaz to leave Kadima for Likud
Mofaz, however, rejected the idea this morning, claiming that “the Prime Minister is trying to split up Kadima and Livni is trying to topple the government." Under pressure from Kadima, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin prevented the law from being debated last week, but the government is insisting that the proposed law must reach the floor. The bill could therefore come up for a vote as early as tomorrow.
“The situation is absurd,” Mofaz said in the radio interview. “The voter wanted the Labor party in the opposition and Kadima in the government, and Livni sent Kadima to the opposition and Labor to the government.”
Mofaz said that Kadima should be ready to join the government if Netanyahu will accept the “two states for two peoples” formula. “In that case, everyone in Kadima will gladly join a unity government,” he said, but claimed that the Prime Minister is currently stalling.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the opposition Sunday during the weekly cabinet meeting to stand behind his “demilitarized PA state” peace plan . He claimed he has generated international support for the two main principles of his plan – an Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and the guarantee that any Palestinian Authority state would be demilitarized.