Kadima, Labor sign Israel coalition deal

RAMAT GAN, Israel (Reuters) – Israeli acting Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party and the centre-left Labor Party
signed a coalition agreement on Thursday that will form the
backbone of a new government

Negotiating teams for the two parties signed the deal which
had been finalized earlier in the day in a meeting between
Olmert and Labor leader Amir Peretz, who is set to take the
deal to his party’s central committee on Sunday for approval.

“We achieved results and that is the most important thing
– that there is an agreement that is good for Kadima and Labor
and will be good for Israel,” said Yoram Turbowicz, head of
Kadima’s negotiating team.

The partnership appeared likely to pave the way for a new
government to be sworn in as early as next week.

Centrist Kadima won the most votes in Israel’s March 28
general election but it needs the support of Labor and several
other smaller parties for a parliamentary majority.

Under the deal, Labor will receive seven cabinet posts in
the new government, including the senior Defense Ministry
portfolio which Peretz, a former trade union leader, will hold.

Labor officials said Sunday’s party committee vote would be
a formality and the meeting would mainly be to decide cabinet
posts.

Olmert seeks to form a broad coalition with more than 80
seats in the 120-member parliament.

He will need a strong majority in order to pursue his plan
to pull out of parts of the occupied West Bank, while
strengthening Jewish settlements in other sections of the
territory, in the absence of peace talks with the Palestinians.

On Wednesday, Kadima signed a deal bringing the seven-seat
Pensioners Party into the government.

With the Pensioners Party and Labor on board, Olmert would
control 55 seats in the Knesset.

Kadima was also expected to reach an agreement with the
ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which won 12 parliamentary seats in
the election. The six-seat ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism
party also appeared likely to join the government.

But political commentators said the Israel Beitenu party of
ultranationalist leader Avigdor Lieberman was unlikely to sign
up.