Justice Minister Avraham Sharir said Monday he was putting his resignation on “freeze” at the request of Premier Yitzhak Shamir, until a replacement can be found. Sharir, who announced last Friday that he would resign, is expected to remain in office for at least another month.
Shamir rejected Sharir’s proposal that he reappoint Yitzhak Modai who resigned as Justice Minister last August. Modai quit after a bitter personal confrontation with then Premier Shimon Peres and presently serves as a Minister-Without-Portfolio. Peres and his Labor Party colleagues have made it clear they would not accept Modai’s return to the Justice Ministry.
Likud’s choice of a replacement, acceptable to Labor, is Transport Minister Haim Corfu. But Corfu has adamantly refused the job, saying he is perfectly happy heading the Transport Ministry and has a number of projects he wants to complete before the tenure of the Labor-Likud unity coalition government expires in two years.
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