Yadlin joining Labor after Mofaz made 'not serious' offer
Mofaz turns down Labor offer; Yadlin to be party's candidate for defense minister.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANAmos Yadlin(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Former Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin will be Labor's candidate for defense minister in the March 17 election, party leader Isaac Herzog will announce Monday evening at a Tel Aviv press conference.Yadlin has served as director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies for more than three years. His father Aharon was a Labor MK and education minister.He accepted the offer to be Labor's security figure after former defense minister Shaul Mofaz turned down an offer his associates termed insulting.Mofaz demanded to have his Kadima party join Labor as a faction with two realistic seats on the list and a statement from Herzog that he would be Labor's candidate for defense minister. He expected to be offered the 11th slot on Labor's list, which has been reserved for a security figure.
Instead, Herzog sent Labor faction chairman Eitan Cabel to his Kohav Yair home to offer him the 20th slot, no other realistic slot, and no guarantee that he would be appointed a minister at all.Mofaz's associates said Herzog had been wooing Mofaz to Labor for months but he changed his tune since Hatnua head Tzipi Livni made a bond with Labor. They said Herzog stopped speaking to Mofaz three weeks ago.Sources close to Mofaz accused Livni of preventing Kadima from joining a potential Center-Left bloc of parties that would have run together. But Livni said Sunday that she was not opposed to Mofaz joining her on the Labor-Hatnua joint list, despite their bitter fights in the past.At an event in Hod Hasharon Saturday night, Herzog said he viewed Livni as a fitting candidate for defense minister. Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev, a former head of the elite IDF Sayeret Matkal unit, also said he wanted her to become defense minister.In an interview with Israel Radio, former defense minister Amir Peretz, who will be eighth on the Labor list, said he was not a candidate to return to the post. Former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi has also turned down an offer to join the list.Mofaz has not decided his next move, but he is seriously considering quitting politics.
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