Yisrael Beitenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman will decide within 24 hours whether Minister of Energy and Water Resources Uzi Landau will keep his job, or if MK Yair Shamir, both of his own party, will get the portfolio. Both men, the sons of former Likud leaders, are the leading candidates for the post. Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan (Likud), whose name had been mentioned for the job, said that he has been offered a different one.
No party has said that it wants the energy portfolio, which has a low operating budget. Landau has said several times that he wants to serve another term in the post, and aides said that a report that he had been offered the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency were baseless.
Political sources said today that Shamir, the number 2 man in the Yisrael Beitenu list, has priority to receive a top economic portfolio which will be offered the party. As things appear at the moment, Yisrael Beitenu will not receive a more prestigious economic portfolio than the Energy Ministry. On the other hand, if Shamir replaces Landau at the ministry, this will be seen as pushing Landau out, despite his scrupulous loyalty to his party's leader.
Ministry of Energy and Water Resources director general Shaul Tzemach has already notified Landau that he will leave the post at the end of his current term. Candidates as his successor include Landau's chief of staff Smadar Bat-Adam, and former Ministry of Finance deputy budget director Amit Lang.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 11, 2013
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