Labor Party leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, signed a coalition agreement with Premier-designate Tzipi Livni, giving the new Kadima Party leader her first major coalition victory as she turns her attention to Shas.

Barak is boasting a major success, insisting the agreement addresses party demands and leaves Labor as a major coalition partner including a major role in future talks with the PA (Palestinian Authority) and the Syrians. The agreement states that the deal will take priority over any deal signed between Kadima and other coalition partners.

Not everyone in the party is celebrating however. MK Ophir Pines-Paz insists the deal represents nothing more than a “survival deal” for the party leader, insisting the party’s demands were not met and the party has not benefited but to the contrary, has lost out as a result. Pines insists that Barak could have and should have walked away with more but put his own interests ahead of the party’s.

Proponents of the plan accuse Pines-Paz of expressing his own personal dissatisfaction since his goal is to once against become a cabinet minister. The deal states those party members holding cabinet posts will serve as ministers in the new Livni-led government.

Pines was quite explicit in his criticism of Barak, who assured himself a new title in the agreement, senior deputy prime minister. Pines-Paz explains the title is meaningless since the law defines the roles of deputy prime ministers as well as an acting prime minister, who is senior to a deputy or even the now new position of senior deputy. Realizing that he will not be prime minister and cannot gain if there are elections, Barak worked to create a new senior position for himself via the coalition deal.

One proponent of the agreement is Yitzchak Herzog, currently a minister in the government, who explains the deal provides increased benefits for the nation’s elderly, education and families living under difficult financial realities.

What is certain however is that the deal is not an inexpensive one, carrying a NIS 2 billion price tag. This is the result of Livni agreeing to Labor’s demands as well as an increase in funds allocated for child allowance payments – in line with demands from Labor and of course Shas. The move was criticized by Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, who announced he does not know where the funds will be found to cover the agreement’s cost without veering from the 2009 state budget.

That said; most of the NIS 2 billion is due to demands placed on the table by Labor prior to signing the agreement, NIS 1.5 billion. The increase will come over a two-year period, 2009-2011.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel – This article written on the first day of Chol Hamoed Sukkos in Eretz Yisrael)