Dichter pulls out of Kadima leadership race, supports Mofaz

MK Avi Dichter announced on Thursday that he was withdrawing from next Tuesday’s race for the leadership of the Kadima party and would support Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Shaul Mofaz against current party head Tzipi Livni.

Dichter joins a growing list of prominent Kadima party members pledging support for Mofaz, including former IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz, MK and ex-Jewish Agency head Zeev Bielski and MK Meir Sheetrit.

Livni has her supporters within the faction as well, most notably Gideon Ezra and Nachman Shai.

In a poll of 400 Kadima members for Haaretz on Wednesday, Livni had the support of 46 percent, with 36% for Mofaz. The poll, conducted before Dichter dropped out of the race, showed him at 9%.

In an interview on Israel Radio on Thursday, Livni said she had made a mistake in not devoting more attention to the party’s internal political affairs, but blamed the party’s precipitous fall in opinion polls over the past year on Mofaz, whose diplomatic plan was nothing more than a “show for the media without content.”

Sheetrit, on the same program, said Mofaz was the only viable alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.