Kadima’s Mofaz names new party director-general

New Kadima head keeps his promise not to fire Kadima workers until after Passover; Mofaz names Ezra Nahum as director-general.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Mofaz Netanyahu Livni 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Mofaz Netanyahu Livni 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
New Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz started putting together his team to run the party on Sunday, naming a new director-general and deputy director-general.
Mofaz kept his promise not to fire any Kadima workers until after Passover. He had asked Moshe Shehori to stay on as director-general until after the holiday even though he was a loyalist of former Kadima head Tzipi Livni and had offered to resign the day after she lost the March 27 primary.
For the director-general post, Mofaz named Ezra Nahum, who has served for the past 15 years as deputy director-general of the city of Ramat Gan. A spokesman for Mofaz said Nahum had vast administrative experience and was the right man to put the party back on the right track and prepare it for the next general election.
Mofaz named his political adviser Tal Ashkenazi as deputy director-general. Ashkenazi is a city councilman in Or Yehuda and a former aide to MK Dalia Itzik (Kadima).
While Mofaz was appointing new staff to run Kadima, Livni made a surprise appearance at an event marking Mimouna, a festive holiday celebrated by Moroccan Jews the day after Passover. Livni went to a party at the home of a Kadima activist in Kfar Hanagid, a moshav 20 km. south of Tel Aviv.
“They told me that I have been freed from the obligation of politicians to go to Mimouna parties, but I came out of love and respect,” Livni tweeted. “I feel love for my friends who accompanied me and respect for this beautiful and special tradition.”
Livni’s associates have in the past advised “not to read too much” into Livni’s tweets since the election. But her supporters in the Kadima faction expressed hope that the tweets indicated that she cannot remove herself from public life and that she would choose to remain in the Knesset and in Kadima.
Sources close to Livni hinted that she would announce her political future by April 30 when the Knesset’s spring recess ends. Meanwhile, she is not expected to attend a seven-hour work meeting for the faction that Mofaz called for this coming Tuesday.
At the last faction meeting Mofaz convened, MKs complained that they were forced to leave their cellphones outside the meeting. But Mofaz’s loyalists said the MKs would have to take their jobs more seriously now and that the party had to make up for lost time and get ready for the next election.