MK Zeev Elkin (Kadima) announced that he would not be running for a slot on the next roster. "The Kadima I knew doesn't exist anymore," he said at a press conference held jointly with Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.
Elkin said he planned to run for the Likud instead.
Netanyahu told reporters that Likud would hold on to the education portfolio. "I want to make it clear that education will be under Likud's control – not Shas'," he said.
Asked for his reaction to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's remark that all secular teachers were "asses", Netanyahu said "I categorically reject this statement."
