Mofaz: Kadima can join gov’t under right circumstances

Livni's rival for opposition leadership says "there will be primaries in Kadima sooner than people think.”

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
mofaz livni (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
mofaz livni
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni’s rival for the Kadima leadership, MK Shaul Mofaz, suggested on Tuesday that his party could join Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government under the right circumstances.
Mofaz’s comments were very different than those of Livni and Kadima MKs loyal to her, who said the best Kadima could offer Netanyahu was a parliamentary safety net.
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“I think it’s clear to everyone today that if the prime minister will embark on a real, significant diplomatic process that is practical and calls for a national-unity government, with real cooperation and a proper coalition, we can go together and advance Israel,” Mofaz told Army Radio.
Mofaz said he believed a national-unity government with Likud and Kadima could advance the diplomatic process with both the Palestinians and the Syrians.
He said he still thought Kadima should have joined the coalition when it was formed and that now Netanyahu needed to adopt a diplomatic plan for the party to join, ideally Mofaz’s own plan.
“The consensus in Kadima is that if he takes real and practical steps toward peace and there is the right kind of coalition, then there is what to talk about and Kadima can be a new partner in this government,” he said.
Mofaz later told Channel 2 that “if the Netanyahu government adopts a plan, I think Kadima could join the government.”
Following Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s controversial speech at the United Nations General Assembly, he hinted that Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu party would have to leave for Kadima to join.
“The makeup of the coalition would have to be acceptable to us,” Mofaz said.
Asked whether he still believed he would unseat Livni, he said he still believed “there will be primaries in Kadima sooner than people think.”