The resignation of three Likud ministers - Katz (Agriculture), Livnat (Education), and Naveh (Health) - will take effect on Sunday afternoon. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he would submit his resignation at the Sunday morning Cabinet meeting, and it will take effect Tuesday morning. The resignations may hasten Olmert's decision to name new ministers, but may also have the opposite effect, given the fluid political situation.
In any event, Olmert is just about ready to appoint at least three new ministers - all of whom, like Olmert, left the Likud with Ariel Sharon to form the Kadima Party nearly two months ago. Two of the three, Ze'ev Boim and Roni Bar-on, received promises by Ariel Sharon to appoint them as ministers nearly a year ago, because of their loyal support of his plans to abandon Gush Katif and northern Shomron. However, he was unsuccessful in having their appointments passed in the Knesset, though he tried more than once. The third minister-to-be, Yaakov Edry, was also a loyal supporter of Sharon.
In addition, Olmert wishes to appoint as government ministers the three former Labor MKs who joined Kadima - Shimon Peres, Chaim Ramon and Dalia Itzik. Here, however, he faces legal troubles.
Olmert's 12 portfolios include the two that he held before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered his massive stroke, Finance and Industry/Trade. They also include five portfolios that he inherited from Sharon, who in turn inherited them from the Labor Party members who resigned from the government two months ago.
Ynet reports that Dr. Suzy Navot, an expert on constitutional law from the College of Management, says that according to Clause 6A of one of the Basic Laws - the "Knesset Law" - a Knesset Member who quits his party faction but remains in the Knesset cannot run for the next Knesset on behalf of a previously-existing party.
The purpose of the law is to prevent MKs from being enticed to change parties in exchange for political favors.
If Peres, Ramon or Itzik - who recently quit Labor and joined Kadima - are named ministers, this could easily be construed as a political favor that would justify a Supreme Court challenge, Navot feels. The Court could then ban them from running for Knesset on the Kadima list.
It should be noted that the clause does not apply to the Likud members who joined Kadima. This is because they did not "resign" from the Likud faction and join another existing faction, but rather "split off" from the Likud to form an entire faction of their own.
The exact language of the relevant clause (translated into English) is, "An MK who resigned from his faction and did not resign [from the Knesset] within a short time of his quitting, will not be included, in the next Knesset election, on the list of Knesset candidates submitted by a party that was represented in the outgoing Knesset." Navot says the law was meant to prevent MKs from receiving political benefits, and that therefore, as long as the MKs in question are not appointed ministers, there is no problem. The problem only begins once they join the government, and in such a case, she feels, the Supreme Court might not approve their candidacies for Knesset seats on the Kadima list.