Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz has joined the Likud, and will run for a slot on its Knesset list. Although only five and a half months will have passed since his retirement from the IDF, two weeks short of the required six months before an army officer can enter politics, Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein ruled that the law can be interpreted "leniently" in this case. His reasons were threefold: the elections were moved up suddenly; Mofaz did not initiate the move, but rather Prime Minister Ariel Sharon drafted him into his government; and Mofaz left his position as Chief of Staff on July 9, a month before his official retirement. Reports that six months will have passed according to the Jewish calendar are false; he retired from the army on the 3rd of Elul, which is five months and 22 days before the elections. Six Jewish months will have passed before the start of the next Knesset, however.