Barak seeks unprecendented power to appoint ministers

Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was set to face a dramatic political test on Tuesday, when he asks the 1,470 members of his party's central committee to approve a coalition deal he has hatched with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

The agreement between Labor and Netanyahu's Likud was expected to be finalized Tuesday morning, after the sides spent the night in last-minute negotiations.

In addition, Barak was to ask his party to give him the authority to determine which of the party's 13 Knesset members will be appointed to ministerial positions - a demand which is without precedent and which would require an amendment to the party's constitution.

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Opponents of Barak's proposal to join the coalition yesterday launched a particularly vitriolic broadside against their party leader, accusing him of "trying to turn Labor into Yisrael Beiteinu" and of "acting as if he got 50 seats in the Knesset, rather than suffering an electoral whipping."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073506.html

I hope he gets ousted as party leader before he ties Labour's fate to a government having Avigdor Lieberman as a key player.

It's going to be interesting watching him and Bibi try to "work together".