A day after winning the leadership of the country’s ruling party, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was set to begin consolidating her power in the faction yesterday by meeting her defeated rivals.
However, her main rival Shaul Mofaz, whom she defeated by only 431 votes, canceled his meeting with the new Kadima leader after dramatically announcing on Thursday night he was taking a time-out from politics.
“The time has come for me to take a break,” Mofaz told his campaign headquarters in Givatayim, a suburb east of Tel Aviv, on Thursday night.
“I want to consider my future and different ways that I can contribute to Israeli society, to the state and to my family. I am not requesting a position or rank in the government or the Knesset. I will remain a Kadima member and do everything in my power for the party,” he said.
The announcement stunned both his supporters and Livni, whose aides said they tried to reach Mofaz and persuade him to reconsider. Mofaz, however, declined to meet with Livni.
“I was surprised to say the least. All the activists were surprised. All the friends were surprised. All the closest people were surprised,” Kadima legislator Ronit Tirosh, a close supporter of Mofaz, told Israel Radio yesterday.
“He just closed himself inside with his family, wrote what he wrote and in the evening he dropped the bomb,” she said.
Mofaz, 60, a former army chief of staff and a comparative hawk within the centrist party of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, serves as transport minister. He is also in charge of “strategic dialogue with the US,” meaning he is Israel’s representative in talks coordinating responses to Iran’s nuclear program.
Government sources told Israel Radio yesterday that a replacement would have to be appointed to that crucial post.
Because of his narrow loss, speculation had also been rife that Livni would give him a senior post such as the foreign minister.
Livni was declared the winner of the Kadima primary on Thursday, after official results showed her obtaining 41.3 percent of the vote, against 40 percent for Mofaz. The other two candidates, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, won 8.5 percent and 6.5 percent of the vote respectively.
Olmert intends to resign by early next month over accusations of corruption, allowing Livni to try and form a new government. If she fails, early elections are likely to be held by March.
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