HaNegbi reportedly told his aides that he does not see himself anywhere other than at Sharon's side over the next few years. He also said, Israel Radio reported, that Sharon himself has expressed a desire to have HaNegbi in his party.
He announced his move at a press conference in Tel Aviv this afternoon, saying that he could not see himself supporting any of the candidates currently running for Likud leader and Prime Ministerial candidate. He also announced his resignation from the Knesset. "My mandate belongs to the Likud, and so I am returning it," HaNegbi said. Pnina Rosenblum is slated to take his place - but said today she is not sure if she will remain in the Likud or jump to Kadima.
HaNegbi's move drew a host of derisive comments. Likud MK Gilad Erdan said, "It is sad to see how a person who began his career as an uncompromising ideologue, is ending it as an opportunist."
Peace Now Chairman Yariv Oppenheimer said, "HaNegbi's move to Kadima shows that the common denominator [in Kadima] is lust for power."
HaNegbi is the son of the right-wing Geulah Cohen, a member of the 1940's Lechi movement who left Menachem Begin's Likud in 1979 in protest of the transfer of the Sinai to Egypt. HaNegbi first became famous as a student leader when he led a protest atop a tall monument in the Sinai city of Yamit.
Aides to HaNegbi said he had been promised one of the top ten spots on Kadima's list of Knesset candidates.
Just last night, it was learned that the police plan to recommend that HaNegbi be indicted on charges of having made illegal government appointments when he was Minister of the Environment, in 2003-4. HaNegbi was forced to resign the post after the publication of the State Comptroller's report on those appointments.
HaNegbi said in response that he had done nothing illegal, and nothing that many other ministers had not done before him.
Shinui MK Roni Brizon said that at this rate, with the Sharon father-and-son MKs, MK Eli Aflalo and the Agrexco mini-scandal, and now HaNegbi, "the party faction can hold its meetings in the Maasiyahu Prison." Shinui MK Reshef Chen said, "It will be interesting to see which of the corrupt Kadima politicians will take upon himself the job of explaining the party's position on 'clean government.'"
The Land of Israel Task Force said, playing on a political cliche that has been used in various formats over the past ten years, "The deeper the criminal investigations, the deeper the defections [to Kadima]."
HaNegbi and Sharon's son Omri are widely perceived to be the most corrupt politicians in Israel. At the Sderot Conference this past Nov. 23, the results of a survey on this topic were publicized, indicating that HaNegbi was perceived as the most corrupt government minister. Sharon the son, Omri, received the title "most corrupt Knesset Member" in the survey.
Who will run the Likud now that it does not even have a temporary chairman? Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, who is running for Likud Chairman and Prime Ministerial candidate, said that the party secretariat he heads will run the party's affairs until a chairman is chosen later this month.
Katz said that Sharon has been trying to destroy the Likud for over a year. "The Likud will recover," he said, "as it did after many people quit it over the years." He named Sharon's own defection to the short-lived Shlomtzion Party with extreme left-wing MK Yossi Sarid over 20 years ago; Menachem Begin's aide Shmuel Tamir; Yitzchak Mordechai and others who "left to form the Centrist Party in 1999 and then disappeared from the political scene," and others.
Other reactions:
Binyamin Netanyahu: "This move has no political significance, and is just an expression of [HaNegbi's] personal problems."
Labor MK Matan Vilnai: "How symbolic it is that on the day the police recommend HaNegbi's indictment, he joins Kadima. It appears that Kadima is turning into a 'city of refuge,' exuding a message of total disregard for public clean-handedness and values. To save money, the police can establish a special department for the Kadima party and those who join it."
Likud MK Ayoub Kara: "Criminal indictments have become the entry pass to Kadima."
Former Jerusalem Police Chief Aryeh Amit, who recently joined Labor: "It's frightening to see how HaNegbi was accepted into Kadima on the day the police recommends his indictment."
He announced his move at a press conference in Tel Aviv this afternoon, saying that he could not see himself supporting any of the candidates currently running for Likud leader and Prime Ministerial candidate. He also announced his resignation from the Knesset. "My mandate belongs to the Likud, and so I am returning it," HaNegbi said. Pnina Rosenblum is slated to take his place - but said today she is not sure if she will remain in the Likud or jump to Kadima.
HaNegbi's move drew a host of derisive comments. Likud MK Gilad Erdan said, "It is sad to see how a person who began his career as an uncompromising ideologue, is ending it as an opportunist."
Peace Now Chairman Yariv Oppenheimer said, "HaNegbi's move to Kadima shows that the common denominator [in Kadima] is lust for power."
HaNegbi is the son of the right-wing Geulah Cohen, a member of the 1940's Lechi movement who left Menachem Begin's Likud in 1979 in protest of the transfer of the Sinai to Egypt. HaNegbi first became famous as a student leader when he led a protest atop a tall monument in the Sinai city of Yamit.
Aides to HaNegbi said he had been promised one of the top ten spots on Kadima's list of Knesset candidates.
Just last night, it was learned that the police plan to recommend that HaNegbi be indicted on charges of having made illegal government appointments when he was Minister of the Environment, in 2003-4. HaNegbi was forced to resign the post after the publication of the State Comptroller's report on those appointments.
HaNegbi said in response that he had done nothing illegal, and nothing that many other ministers had not done before him.
Shinui MK Roni Brizon said that at this rate, with the Sharon father-and-son MKs, MK Eli Aflalo and the Agrexco mini-scandal, and now HaNegbi, "the party faction can hold its meetings in the Maasiyahu Prison." Shinui MK Reshef Chen said, "It will be interesting to see which of the corrupt Kadima politicians will take upon himself the job of explaining the party's position on 'clean government.'"
The Land of Israel Task Force said, playing on a political cliche that has been used in various formats over the past ten years, "The deeper the criminal investigations, the deeper the defections [to Kadima]."
HaNegbi and Sharon's son Omri are widely perceived to be the most corrupt politicians in Israel. At the Sderot Conference this past Nov. 23, the results of a survey on this topic were publicized, indicating that HaNegbi was perceived as the most corrupt government minister. Sharon the son, Omri, received the title "most corrupt Knesset Member" in the survey.
Who will run the Likud now that it does not even have a temporary chairman? Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, who is running for Likud Chairman and Prime Ministerial candidate, said that the party secretariat he heads will run the party's affairs until a chairman is chosen later this month.
Katz said that Sharon has been trying to destroy the Likud for over a year. "The Likud will recover," he said, "as it did after many people quit it over the years." He named Sharon's own defection to the short-lived Shlomtzion Party with extreme left-wing MK Yossi Sarid over 20 years ago; Menachem Begin's aide Shmuel Tamir; Yitzchak Mordechai and others who "left to form the Centrist Party in 1999 and then disappeared from the political scene," and others.
Other reactions:
Binyamin Netanyahu: "This move has no political significance, and is just an expression of [HaNegbi's] personal problems."
Labor MK Matan Vilnai: "How symbolic it is that on the day the police recommend HaNegbi's indictment, he joins Kadima. It appears that Kadima is turning into a 'city of refuge,' exuding a message of total disregard for public clean-handedness and values. To save money, the police can establish a special department for the Kadima party and those who join it."
Likud MK Ayoub Kara: "Criminal indictments have become the entry pass to Kadima."
Former Jerusalem Police Chief Aryeh Amit, who recently joined Labor: "It's frightening to see how HaNegbi was accepted into Kadima on the day the police recommends his indictment."