Kadima will continue to run the country for years to come, the party's new leader, Tzipi Livni, said Friday. In a speech to the Kadima faction at the party's Petah Tikva headquarters, Livni said she purposely did not form a coalition-negotiating team because she wanted to handle the negotiations directly with the other party heads, and quickly. "We entered this process because we were asked to replace our prime minister," Livni said. "There is no obligation to change the coalition. I don't see any reason for the coalition partners to try to take advantage of the process for their own gains. "I am not afraid of elections, and we in Kadima have no reason to worry about elections," she added. "They are just unnecessary." Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Kadima should threaten its coalition partners with elections and refuse to change the coalition guidelines. In the face of threats from Labor to bring down the government, Livni said that if Labor wanted to initiate elections, the party could have done so two months ago. Livni met on Friday with Pensioners Party chairman Rafi Eitan, who said he would support a government with her at the helm, but stressed that if additional factions joined the coalition, he would have several demands. He declined to elaborate. In an effort to bolster the coalition, Livni also met Friday with Meretz leader Haim Oron and on Saturday night with National Religious Party chairman Zevulun Orlev. Orlev said afterward he saw no chance of establishing a stable coalition, and he called on all parties to work for an early general election, or at the very least, for a national emergency government which would deal with the challenges facing the country over the course of one year. National Union MK Arye Eldad slammed Orlev for meeting with Livni, saying that there was no way the NU-NRP could join a government led by a woman who has declared her support for expelling Jews from Judea and Samaria. In her meeting with Oron, Livni said she wanted Meretz to become part of her coalition. Oron expressed interest in joining the government if it would pursue peace with the Palestinians and with Syria and stop the judicial reforms of Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann. Livni told Oron that the peace process would continue with full force. Kadima MK Otniel Schneller said that if Meretz joined the coalition, a right-wing party would have to join at the same time to balance it out and prevent the government from becoming too left-wing. Likud faction head Gideon Sa'ar said Livni's invitation to Meretz to join the coalition was proof that she intended to establish what he called a "leftist" government with policies that lack the support of the majority of the public.
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN, JPOST STAFF