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The Knesset yesterday approved a coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the Kadima party of Shaul Mofaz. The new government will have a majority of 94 in the 120-seat Knesset – the largest in Israeli history.

The Kadima leader was immediately sworn in as a minister without portfolio within the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, after the Knesset approved his appointment by 71 votes to 23. Mofaz will now serve as one Netanyahu’s deputy prime ministers. Labour Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich will head the Opposition for the duration of the Knesset’s term.

According to an outline of the coalition deal, Mofaz will also be a member of the Security Cabinet and Netanyahu’s inner circle – previously known as the Octet. Kadima will also chair four powerful parliamentary committees, including defence, economic and foreign affairs. The prime minister also agreed to support Kadima’s call for changes to the Tal Law, which allows ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students to avoid military service.

Wednesday’s vote followed a stormy debate in which MKs were allowed to make short speeches. Some opposition members criticised Mofaz for what they called “opportunism” and “cheap politics”. Veteran MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labour) blasted Mofaz for joining the government saying “You’ve sold your soul to the devil … the devil is the only one that profits from the deal”. Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On blamed both Netanyahu and Mofaz for “devising a deal so dirty the public has lost faith in all of us. One rotten apple – the Kadima Party – has spoiled us all.”

In related news, Kadima council chairman and one of its founders Haim Ramon sent Mofaz a fiercely worded letter yesterday announcing that he was quitting his post and would be leaving Kadima. “I cannot remain in the party after it betrayed the vision it was built upon,” Ramon said. “There is no more Kadima ideologically. It was founded as a centrist party. Joining this coalition does not mesh with our values,” he wrote in his letter.