Gaydamak may become minister thanks to spurned Pensioners

The party of billionaire businessman Arcadi Gaydamak, Social Justice, is expected to reach the Knesset in the next few weeks, long before parliamentary elections.

Barring a last-minute change, Social Justice officials are expected to team up with three members of the Pensioners Party to form the Social Justice faction in the Knesset. According to the agreement, Social Justice will become a Knesset-represented party on April 18.

This is the first step of Gaydamak's much-bigger plan to add MKs from various parties to form a faction of 18 MKs by the next Knesset elections.

The new faction will be eligible to have one of its members appointed a minister, according to the current arrangement. The minister could be one of the three MKs quitting the Pensioners Party - Moshe Sharoni, Elhanan Glazer or Sara Marom Shalev - one of the new members, or even Gaydamak himself.

Gaydamak, who plans to run for mayor of Jerusalem, has said he would consider serving as minister for Jerusalem affairs. In any case, he intends to be chairman of his party and attend the faction's Knesset sessions.

Faction chair Izhak Galenti said that there is "no ideological motive" behind the other Pensioners party MKs move to join Gaydamak. He said that Sharoni, who is leading the revolt against the party, is asking for a senior ministerial position in return.

Sharoni says that his decision to leave the Pensioners party is due to the fact that the Galenti and other party members refuse to support his bill calling for a sharp increase in stipends for the elderly.

Up until October, Sharoni served as the faction party leader as well as the ehad of the Knesset Welfare Committee. Sharoni was dismissed from these positions by Pensioners Party head Rafi Eitan and replaced by Galenti. His dismissal came after Eitan refused to back his bill to increase elderly stipends to 20 percent of the average wage in Israel.

Soon after his dismissal, Sharoni said that he was considering establishing his own party. To do so, he would have to gain the support of a 2 other MKs in the party.

Regarding his contact with Gaydamak, Sharoni said that while the two did meet last week, "it was not negotiations. Negotiations aren't done haphazardly. I have time to think about it. Hopefully my friends in the Pensioners party will realize that they were voted in by pensioners and they will demand that the bill be passed. It is part of the coalition agreement we reached.

Galenti said in response that while Sharoni acts as if he wants to stay in the Pensioners party, he thinks that he will join Gaydama since he was promised a top job.

Haaretz has learned that Gaydamak plans to form a faction of five by the end of May, by adding two other MKs - at least one who would quit Kadima. Then the faction will try to add MKs from various parties until the elections.

The Pensioners' MKs are suitable to Social Justice due to their affinity to social causes and because they are not expected to run during the next Knesset elections.

In addition to Knesset members who do not intend to run for the next Knesset - and would therefore not hesitate to leave their party for Social Justice - the new faction hopes to add several MKs after splits in Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu.

Social Justice people are conducting intensive negotiations with MKs from both these parties. If an entire third of a parliamentary faction splits from the mother party and joins a new one, the MKs maintain their rights in the new faction as well.

The new faction is offering MKs a chance to join up without having to take part in a primary election.

The formation of the Social Justice faction was accelerated after Gaydamak's party launched a big push for the local elections due later this year.

Gaydamak's big plan could alter the political and parliamentary scene. If various MKs join Social Justice, it could change the current arrangement for appointing ministers.

Gaydamak himself is going ahead with his preparations for the Jerusalem mayoral elections.

Gaydamak told Haaretz on Monday that he would consider being a minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora affairs.

"This is a post I think I am suitable for," he said.

"The Maariv poll that said the public prefers me to [Ehud] Barak for prime minister reflects the public's confusion and frustration. In the absence of experience in security affairs, I am not suitable to be prime minister," he said.

"On the other hand I am very suitable to be a minister who would bring peace and prosperity to Jerusalem and unite the Jewish people in the Diaspora around a feeling of solidarity for Israel."

	Russian Israeli billionaire businessman Arcadi Gaydamak. (Maya Levin / Jini)