Barely an MK, Mofaz eyes premiership

Four months after his Kadima party crashed from 27 to two seats, making it the smallest faction in the Knesset, Shaul Mofaz said he still had his sights set on becoming prime minister of Israel.

“I was the only alternative [candidate] for the prime minister’s post, and I have no doubt I remain the only alternative,” Mofaz told the Maariv daily, which on Thursday published excerpts from an interview.

Calling himself “a long-distance runner,” the former defense minister said his goal was the country’s leadership. “It’s only a matter of time” before it happens, Mofaz replied when asked about his chances of winning. “In the meantime I’m preparing.”

“Sometimes it takes a decade or even more,” Mofaz continued. “I’m preparing for the job of prime minister. I’m the only one fit for this job.”

Acknowledging his failure in the January elections — in which his party flirted dangerously closely with the electoral threshold and nearly didn’t win any representation in the Knesset at all — Mofaz said he had experienced very hard moments. The Kadima chief blamed Justice Minister Tzipi Livni for the party’s collapse, saying her failure to cope with losing to him in the primary elections had prompted her to establish a rival party, Hatnua.

Hatnua won six seats in the January elections.