Likud uninterested in Mofaz returning

Kadima colleagues urge him to remain in fold; supporters believe he's rethinking his options.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
mofaz studious 224 88 ap (photo credit: AP)
mofaz studious 224 88 ap
(photo credit: AP)
Supporters of Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz have urged him to retain both that post and his Knesset seat, despite his announcement last Thursday that he plans to take a break from politics following his loss to Tzipi Livni in Kadima's leadership primary. Mofaz cannot formally quit as long as there is a transitional government in place. In the past three days, he has stayed away from political life but has taken no formal steps to show that he intends to quit. His supporters believe he is rethinking his options and they remain hopeful that he will be swayed to remain. "We are pressuring him to stay," Mofaz associate Avi Duan told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. Duan said that on Tuesday, Mofaz loyalists planned to gather for a Rosh Hashana toast and publicly ask him to resume work and announce that he intends to stay in his post as one of the top figures in Kadima. MK Otniel Schneller, who supported Mofaz in the primary, said he believed that after some contemplation, he would indeed choose to hold onto his political posts. "I do not believe that Mofaz intends to quit" either as minister or as an MK, Schneller told the Post. One thing is certain, Schneller said: Mofaz will remain in Kadima. Although Mofaz lost the primary to Livni, his political future remained in Kadima, where he could still play a powerful role, Schneller said. He said he did not see any scenario in which Mofaz left Kadima, and he certainly would not choose to return to his former party, the Likud. A number of Likud MKs told the Post that Mofaz's only political options were in Kadima. The return of Mofaz would not be an asset to Likud, MK Yuli Edelstein told the Post. Party members had not forgiven him for the manner in which he left, Edelstein said. He recounted how in the winter of 2005, when Mofaz had been in the midst of a primary race for the Likud chairmanship, he had sent a letter to the party's members about how you don't leave your political home, and had then proceeded to withdraw from the race and leave for Kadima. It would be hard to trust him after that, Edelstein said. MK Yuval Steinitz said Likud "should not accept [politicians] as members of the Knesset or as ministers who left the Likud for Kadima in order to destroy the Likud or to preserve their jobs." This would be true of anyone in Kadima, not just Mofaz, he said. Beyond that, Mofaz was also a liability because he was responsible for many of the failures of the Second Lebanon War, Steinitz said. He was defense minister for four years prior to the campaign and left just a few months before it started. Mofaz failed to properly train and supply the IDF to fight such a war, Steinitz said. Mofaz was more responsible for the war's failures than then-defense minister Amir Peretz, Steinitz said.