Kadima leadership candidate Shaul Mofaz started acting as if he already headed
his party on Tuesday, sending a letter to every party leader – other than
Kadima’s Tzipi Livni – asking them to take action to change the political
system.
One of Mofaz’s main criticisms of Livni has been that she has not
advanced a clear agenda for Kadima during her three years leading the
opposition. Mofaz’s associates said advocating changes to the political system
was the kind of initiative she should have been taking all along.
“There
are many challenges and threats we are facing these days,” Mofaz wrote to the
party heads. “We deeply disagree ethically and ideologically about how to handle
many of them. But as different as our political outlooks are, if we don’t change
our political system, we will condemn ourselves to continue standing in place,
wallowing in the political mire, instead of advancing our national
interests.”
Mofaz said that now was the time to make changes before the
campaign for the next Knesset begins. He said the party leaders had the power in
their hands “to bring about an essential historical change.”
“We must
guarantee that the next government formed in Israel, whatever its makeup, will
have the ability to govern and lead the people of Israel according to the
mandate it receives from the voters,” Mofaz said.
Sources close to Mofaz
said he endorsed the electoral reform proposals advocated by Herzliya
Interdisciplinary Center President Uriel Reichman, which are soon to be promoted
in a large campaign that will be headed by former Mossad director Meir Dagan.
Mofaz favors raising the electoral threshold, strengthening the largest parties,
and electing as many as 60 of the 120 Knesset members via direct, regional
elections.
While a majority of MKs in Kadima, Labor and Likud would
likely endorse such changes, they would be strongly opposed by Israel Beiteinu,
Shas, United Torah Judaism and the Independence Party.