TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Wednesday managed to bring to his new party, Kadima, a Cabinet minister who for years embodied the nationalist spirit of their former party, the Likud.
The minister is Zahi Hanegbi, in title a Minister Without Portfolio but in fact the man who monitors Israel's intelligence services, the Atomic Energy Committee and represents Israel in the strategic dialogue with the United States.
His move to Kadima seemed to deliver yet another blow to the Likud that public opinion polls indicated was crashing.
Addressing a press conference in Tel Aviv Hanegbi said: "I cannot back any of the people competing today over the Likud's leadership.I could not operate in a party that seeks to present a candidate ... against Ariel Sharon whom I trust as a leader, in whom I believe and whose path I prefer."
Hanegbi, 48, had fought Sharon almost a quarter of a century ago when Sharon, then defense minister, evacuated the Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula before the area was returned to Egypt. Hanegbi, who was a student, led a group that climbed to the top of a memorial at the town of Yamit, barricaded itself at the top and refused to leave. The group left only after most of the town was destroyed.
Then at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem he was involved with a group that beat Arab students with chains.
As a Cabinet minister he voted against the withdrawal from Gaza but supported that decision when it came before the Knesset. Cabinet collective responsibility required him to support cabinet decisions in the legislature.
At Wednesday's press conference he said he has "Reached a conclusion that in the coming years we must shape our future here through a political compromise ...
"Only the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, can lead the strategic steps to shape the State of Israel. Whatever Sharon will not do in the next four years, probably no other leader will do in the next 30 years," he added.
If there will be no Palestinian partner for an agreement "Sharon is the person who can shape border in which I believe, in which there will be concessions (to the Palestinians) but on the other hand an extension of (Israeli) sovereignty to the settlement blocks."
Israel Radio's political analyst Hanan Krystal concluded what Hanegbi did not say, at least not publicly: In a year or two, Sharon will undertake another unilateral move and extend Israeli law to the West Bank areas he plans to keep. Zahi Hanegbi is joining a future move that he knows Sharon can take and the Likud would not let him."
Hanegbi's move to Kadima is more significant than that of the all the other 13 Likud ministers and Knesset members who last month left the Likud with Sharon. All the others supported the disengagement, he noted.
Hanegbi noted he is "no longer the curly haired student from the (Yamit) memorial. Twenty-three years have passed ... Our hair has grayed ... and it is difficult to remain, energetically in the same position."
He has been very popular in the Likud and became its interim chairman after Sharon's left.
Hebrew University Political Science Professor Avraham Diskin told United Press International Hanegbi's departure signals that the Likud "is a sinking ship."
A public opinion poll published Wednesday in Ha'aretz showed that if elections were held now the Likud would have won 12 mandates compared with 40 it controls now. These 12 are already better than the nine it would have received last week, before the suicide bombing in Netanya.
Many Likud members are hesitating whether to join Kadima because of the "left wing" dovish politicians that have joined it, former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Minister Haim Ramon. Hanegbi move "gives the approval (to join Kadima)," Diskin added.
The move is a mixed blessing for Kadima. It was announced the day police recommended criminal charges against Hanegbi.
Police alleged that Hanegbi made illegal appointments in the Ministry of Environment that he headed from 2001 to 2003.
A police press release said they had questioned Hanegbi over "suspected offences of deceit, breach of trust, misuse of power, election bribery, perjury and false evidence."
The investigators believe there is evidence that those offences were committed, police said.
Earlier Sharon's son, Omri, pleaded guilty to financial wrongdoing in funding his father's past primaries.
Hanegbi confirmed Likud appointments but said none were forced and suitable people got the jobs. He said that was never forbidden. Dozens if not hundreds of ministers did so and if the attorney general believes that is illegal then that ruling "should apply from now on but not retroactively."
Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is leading the race for the Likud's leadership. Friday's poll in Yediot Aharonot showed he had the support of 39 percent of the Likud members, and the runner up Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had only 21 percent. Former minister Uzi Landau who got nine percent quit the race and joined Netanyahu.
The two presented their "principles" in Tel Aviv Wednesday. Israel would not let Iran develop a nuclear threat, the agreed paper said. There will no more unilateral withdrawals, no withdrawals from the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley, and Jerusalem shall be "the capital of the State of Israel and its (capital) only. There will be no negotiations over Jerusalem," it added. The Palestinians maintain East Jerusalem shall be their capital but Netanyahu and Landau seek to expand settlement activity around the town and to link Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim in the southeast and Gush Etzion south of Bethlehem. That would go a long way to creating a Jewish wedge between the predominantly Arab East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.
Reporters had criticized Landau for having denied he was quitting the race the night before he stepped down. That denial tarnished his image as a scrupulously honest person.
Netanyahu defended his new ally. "He denied. What a terrible thing!" the former prime minister said sarcastically. "What would you expect?" he asked.
