Peres's associate blasts Hanegbi's joining Kadima

Yoram Marziano, Shimon Peres's campaign manager in the Labor Paty's latest elections, blasted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for taking MK Tzahi Hanegbi into Kadima. He accused the prime minister of pulling his supposedly centrist party rightward. Marziano, who is himself running for a Knesset seat in Labor, claimed that the prime minister mislead Peres. "Sharon should be ashamed of himself for tricking Peres. He asked Peres to join a centrist party, but with every passing day its becoming clearer and clearer to Peres that he is in a boat together with the most corrupt people in Israeli politics," Marziano lamented, referring to the suspicions and indictments against many of Kadima's members. The campaign manager expressed his confidence Peres's conscience would not let him "vote for the shameful group that Sharon formed around him."