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Israeli party lists show new names, little experience

Ahead of Israel's elections, many publicly unknown figures have been promised slots on different party lists, while the esteemed former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was rejected and no leading municipal leader and few former generals were willing to join.
Kadima party leader Shaul Mofaz speaks during a news conference in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv July 17, 2012. Israel's Kadima party quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition on Tuesday in a dispute over drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, but the government was not expected to collapse because it still had a majority in parliament. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY RELIGION) - RTR350Q2
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On the evening of Jan. 18, Knesset member Eitan Cabel was sent to the home of Kadima Party Chairman Shaul Mofaz in Kochav Yair to offer him the safe 20th spot on the Herzog-Livni Zionist Camp list. Cabel also offered the former defense minister the opportunity to add another person from his party to the fourth tier of candidates. Thus ended several weeks of bizarre and rickety negotiations between Mofaz and the head of the Zionist Camp list, Labor Party Chairman Isaac Herzog. Mofaz rejected the offer as anticipated. After all, the offer was made with the intention that he would reject it.

The following day, Zionist Camp leaders Herzog and Tzipi Livni held a pretentious news conference to announce that Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin (res.) would be joining their group as its senior security figure. Yadlin, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, was also a bold pilot, who participated in the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq 1981. He is the son of Aharon Yadlin, a former leader of the Mapai Party (the mother party of today's Labor), who once served as minister of education. Thus, he is undoubtedly a refreshing new acquisition.

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