Preliminary discussions among possible coalition partners have informally begun for the two front-runners in the September 17 Kadima primary, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
According to insiders close to Mofaz, the coalition he would put together if he was chosen to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as Kadima chairman would almost certainly include the Labor Party, and possibly also the National Religious Party.
Labor would likely abandon the Education Ministry as a way to dismiss Education Minister Yuli Tamir, an ally of deposed Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz. Instead, Labor would receive the Justice Ministry from Kadima, replacing controversial minister Daniel Friedman with a Labor appointee. To cement its loyalty to the coalition, the NRP would receive the portfolio at the top of its wishlist - the now-available Education Ministry.
The discussions are preliminary, according to those familiar with them, because much of the energy of Kadima's planners and strategists is focused on the primaries themselves.
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