 |
 |
 |
|
|
Mofaz on Sunday Dec. 11, 2005 quit the Likud to join Kadima led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff and partners December 11, 2005 |
|
| |
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday plucked another leader from the Likud Party's dwindling ranks, persuading the once-reluctant Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to join his new centrist party.
The addition of Mofaz brought another high-powered politician to Sharon's Kadima Party in March 28 elections, and dealt another embarrassing blow to the reeling Likud Party.
Mofaz, who had earlier rebuffed Sharon's offer to join Kadima in order to seek the chairmanship of the Likud, will hold on to his current job if Sharon is elected to a third term, Mofaz spokeswoman Talia Somech said.
Polls showed Mofaz, a former military chief of staff, trailing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom in the Likud leadership race, scheduled for Dec. 19.
Sharon, by contrast, is doing well in polls. He has steadily gained ground since quitting Likud in November and ridding himself of party hard-liners bent on blocking further territorial concessions to the Palestinians.
The most recent surveys show him capturing 39 parliamentary seats - enough to form a governing coalition supporting his goal of restarting peace talks with the Palestinians.
Mofaz's defection was the latest blow to Likud, which has imploded since Sharon's departure.
The party's acting chairman, Tzachi Hanegbi, bolted on Wednesday, saying Sharon was the best person to lead the country to peace with the Palestinians.
Mofaz scheduled a news conference later Sunday.
The most optimistic polls show Likud, which had dominated Israeli politics for nearly three decades, winning just 13 of parliament's 120 seats in the March election, down from 40 in the last vote.
The departure of Mofaz, a political moderate, strengthens the hardline elements in the Likud camp. Netanyahu, who quit Sharon's government because of his opposition to Israel's Gaza Strip withdrawal, is the current front-runner in the Likud leadership contest.
Sharon told aides on Sunday that Mofaz called him a day earlier to tell him he intended to leave the Likud.
"I suggested he join the Kadima movement and continue serving as defense minister in the next government. He answered affirmatively, and I'm glad," one of the meeting participants quoted Sharon as saying.
In addition to wooing most of the Likud leadership away, Sharon has also won over some leading officials in the dovish Labor Party, most prominently Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres.
The AP contributed to this report
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
