Israel to Swear in Huge Government

When Binyamin Netanyahu returns as Israel’s prime minister on Tuesday, the government he oversees will not be the trimmed-down, economically responsible version he prided himself on a decade ago. Instead, Netanyahu will sit atop the most populous cabinet since Ariel Sharon’s 2001 behemoth: featuring 30 cabinet ministers and an array of six or more deputy ministers. Hours before the government was to be sworn in, intense negotiations continued between the prime minister-designate and members of his own party who are unhappy that the plum positions – political currency in the business of coalition-building – were distributed to other parties that joined the government but had fared much more poorly in the election that gave Netanyahu the mandate to assemble a cabinet. Meanwhile, the head of the workers’ committee rained on outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s parade when he used his turn to speak at a farewell gathering at the ministry to lambaste Livni for inept leadership and being “derelict in the job.” For her part, Livni’s first comment as head of the opposition was to call the Netanyahu government, “Ugly.”