Last update - 00:00 07/02/2007
Labor, Yisrael Beteinu reach an agreement on cabinet reshuffle
By Haaretz Service
Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu reached an agreement Wednesday regarding the distribution of ministerial portfolios among coalition parties, Israel Radio reported.
Nonetheless, it is still unclear whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will accept the parties' understandings.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman, Strategic Threats Minister Avigdor Lieberman, proposed that Labor would agree to hand his party the science, culture and sports portfolio. In exchange, Yisrael Beiteinu would agree to Labor receiving the welfare portfolio.
According to the radio, Labor Secretary General Eitan Cabel informed Olmert that Labor had accepted Yisrael Beiteinu's proposal.
The accord between Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu would pave the way for the government reshuffle, in the wake of former justice minister Haim Ramon's conviction for indecent behavior, to be conducted without moving any serving Labor or Kadima ministers from their current posts.
However, it isn't clear that Olmert will accept the appointment of the newest government minister, Labor's Ghaleb Majadele, to the post of welfare minister, nor is it clear who from Yisrael Beiteinu will be appointed science, culture, and sport minister. MK Esterina Tartman, however, is a leading candidate.
The Labor Party is very interested in receiving the welfare portfolio, which matches their social agenda. Olmert has in the past refused to give Labor the welfare portfolio in exchange for the science, culture, and sport portfolio, demanding instead that the party relinquish the tourism or national infrastructures portfolio.
National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog refused to give up their posts, leading to tensions within the Labor Party.
The position of science, culture, and sport minister has remained vacant since Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz resigned from the government in protest of the addition of Yisrael Beiteinu. Roughly one week ago, Majadele was appointed as a minister in the government, and although he was supposed to receive the science, culture, and sport portfolio, he has remained a minister without portfolio until the completion of the cabinet reshuffle.