Livni on way to Israeli PM

Israel's Foreign Minister, Ms. Tzipi Livni has inched further becoming Prime Minister after reaching a draft agreement with Labour Party to form the Coalition Government.

However, she is still short of the magic number to form a Government. She is in continous parleys with smaller parties to get the majority and most important among them is right winger Shas Party
which has 12 members in the 120 members Israeli Parliament.

Ms. Livni's Kadima Party has 29 seats, while its other four partners with combined 49 members were backing the previous Government.

Ms. Livni is seen as liberal in the Kadima Party and she advocates an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas including east Jerusalem.

Political analysts say that Ms. Livni has to balance between her stand on peace negations and some of her coalition partners who are opposed to negotiations on the future of Jerusalem. It may further widen the gap between Israel and Palestinian negotiators on the core issues, including future status of Jerusalem, which is a key issue for Palestinians.

Knesset Member Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) on Tuesday harshly slammed the coalition agreement signed Monday between his party and Kadima, saying "this is a survival deal which lacks vision, guidelines and a plan of action. It mostly deals with hand crossings and a working schedule."
Barak's new title of "senior deputy prime minister" was "pathetic," according to Paz-Pines, who noted that by law the vice premier is the most senior minister and that title is expected to be given to defeated Kadima leadership candidate Shaul Mofaz.

Gideon Sa'ar accused Barak of "crawling to the government" and "zigzagging" from his promise to only join a national-unity government that included the Likud.

"Labor once again proved that it is a party that would join any government under any circumstances or conditions and that the only thing that is holy to them are their seats in the cabinet," Sa'ar said.