These were drawn up by Yitzhak Mordechai, the defence minister, and Ariel Sharon, the infrastructure minister.

ECONOMIST: Israel

Yitzhak Mordechai formed the ill-fated Center Party in 1999, and Sharon formed the centrist Kadima Party in 2005.

CNN: Israeli politics in tailspin over Iran

Mr Netanyahu sent his defence minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, to negotiate with Yasser Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen).

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Mr Netanyahu is now desperately trying to dissuade the popular minister of defence, Yitzhak Mordechai, and the lone woman in his cabinet, Limor Livnat, from joining the centrists.

ECONOMIST: Israel

The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, are said to have been inundated with warnings from the Shin Bet security service about two possible dangers.

ECONOMIST: Israel

Mr Barak's latest political blow came on March 6th when Yitzhak Mordechai, the minister of transport and leader of the Centre Party, was charged by a young woman on his staff with sexual assault and harassment.

ECONOMIST: Middle East peacemaking reawakens

Yet another of Mr Rubinstein's political hot potatoes is a police investigation, now nearing completion, into allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment by yet another coalition member, Yitzhak Mordechai, transport minister and leader of the Centre Party.

ECONOMIST: Israel

Yitzhak Mordechai, the minister of defence and a relative moderate, this week let it be known that he is deeply unhappy with the way Mr Netanyahu and his foreign minister, Ariel Sharon, handled the talks with Mr Clinton.

ECONOMIST: Israel and Palestine: Clinton’s trip | The

But all the main party leaders Mr Netanyahu, Mr Barak and Yitzhak Mordechai, the leader of the new Centre Party are still on the defensive against a growing body of opinion that calls for immediate and unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon without reference to the Syrians or indeed to the Lebanese.

ECONOMIST: Israel��s mess in Lebanon