Cabinet Approves Expanding Cabinet to Meet Coalition Demands

The last Cabinet session of the outgoing government unanimously approved Sunday morning adding a number of ministries to satisfy demands of coalition partners in the new government.

If all of the ministers competing for the status of bang called "Minister" had their way, there would be approximately 61 ministries in the new government, one for every Knesset Member.

The Knesset later will approve the expansion, which will cost taxpayers a hundred million dollars.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said Sunday that he might rule that the coalition is not legal if there were specific agreements to allot a specific amount of money to different parties for earmarked projects.

Israel governments have a tradition of buying off coalition partners with promises for money for their pet projects.