Knesset dissolution vote delayed following Kadima-Labor deal
According to agreement reached between parties, Labor will oppose bill calling for Knesset's dispersal, Kadima to elect new chairman to replace Olmert by September 25
The scheduled vote on the motion calling for the Knesset's dissolution will not take place Wednesday and has been put off indefinitely after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party agreed to elect a new chairman by September 25.
Kadima Knesset Member Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, Labor party Secretary-General Eitan Cabel and Labor minister Shalom Simhon met for several hours on Tuesday at the Tel Aviv home of Labor Chairman Ehud Barak, after which they agreed that Labor will oppose the bill for the Knesset's dispersal and Kadima will elect a new chairman no later than September 25.
The compromise further states that Olmert will hold a Kadima faction meeting next Monday to vote on changing the party charter to allow primary elections. Ten days later the party's council is due to approve the change in the charter and set the date for the primary elections.
Olmert had threatened to dismiss Labor ministers who would vote in favor of the Knesset dissolution bill.
"Both parties are committed to maintaining governmental stability and to strengthening their partnership in the coalition," the agreement said.
A senior Labor official who was involved in the talks said the compromise "was the right thing to do for the sake of political stability amid the challenges Israel faces.
"The significance of the deal is that Olmert's tenure as PM has ended," he said.
Hanegbi told Ynet after the deal was struck, "the agreement allows both sides to maintain their dignity. The prime minister for his part will benefit from the fact that the agreement will allow him to remain in office (during the cross-examination of Morris Talansky, the key witness in the corruption investigation launched against him)."
A senior Likud official said in response to the agreement that “the Labor party will need to explain how it can sit in a nonfunctioning government and its chairman Ehud Barak will need to explain how he escaped from responsibility once again.”
Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said his party would not back any interim government that would not increase child welfare payments.
Referring to the agreement reached between Kadima and Labor, Yishai said "there is a clash of ideologies here between those who are for the (child welfare) stipends and those who are against the children. I guess the public will decide between these two ideologies."
