Kadima, Labor edge closer to clinching coalition agreement

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Official Kadima and Labor negotiating teams will meet formally for the first time in Tel Aviv on Friday in an effort to finalize a deal on a new governing coalition led by Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. Over the past two weeks, several channels of Kadima and Labor officials have been negotiating behind the scenes, led by Livni and Labor chairman Ehud Barak, who have spoken almost every day and exchanged drafts of an agreement written by Alon Gellert of Labor and Yoram Raved and Yisrael Maimon of Kadima. But many agreements that had been reached in one channel were rejected in another, necessitating the formation of official teams to finalize a deal. Officials involved in the talks even compared them to negotiations with the Palestinians, in which demands rejected in one channel by Foreign Minister Livni were approved in another by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. A Labor team led by Histadrut chief Ofer Eini was supposed to get together with Maimon and Raved on Tuesday afternoon, but the meeting was postponed to Friday at Labor's insistence. Kadima officials called the delay "an unnecessary waste of time" and lamented that the deal could have been completed on Tuesday had the teams met, but Labor representatives blamed Kadima. "We received negative answers on too many issues, and there was no reason to meet and get negative answers again," a Labor negotiator said. "There are also problems where Livni has to get [Finance Minister Ronnie] Bar-On to agree, and until she forces him to compromise, there won't be a deal." The issues that remain in dispute include whether Barak will lead diplomatic talks with Syria, whether Labor can veto Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's judicial reforms, and whether benefits will be raised for senior citizens and college students. Only after Kadima reaches a deal with Labor can more intensive talks begin with Shas, United Torah Judaism, Meretz and the Gil Pensioners Party. Gil representatives met with Maimon and Raved on Tuesday, while talks with UTJ were postponed again because UTJ MK Avraham Ravitz was ill. "No other party will put its cards on the table until we are signed, sealed and delivered with Labor," a Kadima official said. One option that has now been ruled out is forming a narrow Center-Left coalition without Shas and with Labor, Meretz and the outside support of Arab MKs. The option was taken off the table when defeated Kadima leadership candidate Shaul Mofaz and four of his allies in Kadima decided Tuesday that they would vote against such a coalition. The decision was seen as muscle-flexing against Livni by Mofaz, who is expected to make an announcement on his political future at a rally of his supporters on Saturday night in Tirat Carmel. Livni met with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik on Tuesday for the first time since her September 17 primary victory. Livni updated Itzik on the coalition talks, and Itzik urged Livni to make a last-ditch effort to persuade Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu to bring his party into a national-unity government.