The Labor Party inched closer Tuesday to forming a government as it formally signed a coalition agreement with the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael party and picked up support from Likud defectors.
Labor Party leader Shimon Peres needs a single vote to break the Knesset’s current 50-60 deadlock and form a governing majority in the 120-seat legislative body. He has until April 11, when his presidential mandate to come up with a viable coalition expires.
Peres’ fortunes depend on a group of five defectors from Likud’s Liberal Party wing who were said to be split over whether to go with Labor or return to the fold.
The breakaways, who call themselves the Party for the Advancement of Liberal-Zionist Values, are headed by Yitzhak Moda’i, the former minister of economics and planning.
According to an army radio report Tuesday morning, he and colleague Avraham Sharir are prepared to join a Labor-led coalition.
But the other three defectors — Knesset members Yosef Goldberg, Pessah Grupper and Pinhas Goldstein — prefer to stick with Likud.
Moda’i himself was seeking a deal from Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir only a day to two ago.
MONEY REPORTEDLY OFFERED
Likud Transport Minister Moshe Katsav confirmed media reports Tuesday night that Shamir offered the Moda’i group a cash guarantee to back their promise of safe seats on the next Likud election list. The reports put it at $10 million.
Moda’i did not deny the amount. “If they intend to keep the promise, what difference does it make?” he said.
Labor reportedly did not offer Moda’i safe scats.
But Peres is said to have promised to name him finance minister, the portfolio Moda’i held when Peres was prime minister in the Labor-Likud coalition government in 1984-85.
There were unconfirmed reports that Moda’i had demanded that a new Labor-led government postpone for six months a decision to accept U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Moda’i opposed the peace initiative originally launched by Shamir and quit the government in protest against Shamir’s diplomacy with the United States.
Meanwhile, the Labor Party was reported Tuesday evening to have requested that the Knesset, currently in recess, be convened Thursday so that Peres could present a government.
There was no confirmation from Peres, who said only that he hoped to announce a breakthrough in “a day or two.”
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