Free Republic

Apr. 22, 2006 11:23 | Updated Apr. 22, 2006 23:32 Olmert, Peretz agree on largest government ever By GIL HOFFMANOlmert and Peretz - partnersInterim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor Chairman Amir Peretz talk in the Knesset during its inaugural session. Photo: Associated PressIsrael will have its largest government in history with 27 ministers by the end of the week, according to an agreement reached on Thursday night between Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor chairman Amir Peretz, sources close to both men said Saturday. Olmert and Peretz met after 11 p.m. at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and...

Feb. 24, 2003 Shas accuses Sharon of betrayal, excommunicates NRP By GIL HOFFMAN Shas officials reacted angrily to being left out of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government on Monday, issuing scathing criticism of Sharon and his coalition partners, Shinui, and the National Religious Party. The party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, called Sharon, "the king of garbage cans," and compared Shinui to garbage and refuse. On the verge of tears, Yosef said that the National Religious Party behaved worse than anti-Semites by bringing a secularist party like Shinui into the government. Yosef called upon his MKs to do everything possible...