Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet this evening (Sunday) with Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni to discuss his offer for her Kadima party to join the government coalition. The offer was made on the backdrop of a split in the Kadima party and reports that several Kadima members want to join the Likud. Despite this, Livni is not expected to take Netanyahu up on his offer – and certainly not at present. Kadima leaders are miffed that Netanyahu has not offered any ministerial portfolios, sufficing instead with up to four without-portfolio Cabinet positions. Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit says that it would not be wise for his party to accept such an offer. “We’re not in 1967 and there is no war in the offing,” Sheetrit said, referring to the formation of an emergency unity government at that time. “If someone really wants us to join the government, this is not the way.” Sheetrit and his party colleague MK Yisrael Hasson have both said that Kadima must demand a fundamental change in the way Israeli governments are elected and formed. Kadima MK Ronit Tirosh, on the other hand, said the party should join the coalition. Mentioned as one of the potential Kadima renegades, Tirosh said that she would quit the party if Kadima remains out of the government for “immaterial” reasons. Netanyahu: Construction Will Resume No Matter What Netanyahu told Likud ministers on Sunday morning that he does not plan to change the coalition guidelines in order to suit Kadima. He also said that the 10-month Jewish construction freeze in Judea and Samaria will end on schedule even if Kadima joins. Kadima on Brink MK Eli Aflalo of Kadima continues to want out of Kadima in order to form a one-man Knesset faction, and the other potential breakaways are still on the fence. Kadima was formed four years ago as a Likud breakaway, such that the possible split in Kadima to the Likud’s benefit is widely seen as “poetic justice.”
