israelinsider: politics: Netanyahu orders Likud party ministers to quit Sharon's government

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Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu (AP file photo)


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Netanyahu orders Likud party ministers to quit Sharon's government

By Israel Insider staff and partners January 3, 2006

Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu announced officially on Tuesday that Likud party ministers will resign from Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's government this Sunday.

The ministers - including Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom - will hand in their letters of resignation at Sunday's weekly Cabinet meeting, said Ofir Akunis, Netanyahu's spokesman.

Netanyahu, who himself resigned his treasury post close to the start of the disengagement last summer, has been working since his election as Likud party leader more than two weeks ago to convince the ministers to resign.

A number of the sitting ministers, in particular Education Minister Limor Livnat, had expressed reservations over quitting, and had advanced arguments for remaining within the cabinet until after the March elections.

After a meeting on Monday with Netanyahu at the Tel Aviv Likud headquarters, the four Likud cabinet ministers agreed to resign from Sharon's government, and to let Netanyahu decide when the resignation would be.

Sharon is expected to appoint new Cabinet ministers from his centrist Kadima party to replace the outgoing Likud ministers. Israeli radios reported it is likely that Shimon Peres will be appointed Foreign Minister.

Netanyahu was elected last month to head the Likud Party after Sharon quit the faction the he created, and formed a new centrist party.

Sharon's appointments to the Cabinet after the Likud ministers quit will give an idea of what a future Sharon-led government would look like. Opinion polls forecast a landslide victory for Sharon's Kadima party.

The AP and Haaretz contributed to this report.

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