Shaul Mofaz Agrees to Join Benjamin Netanyahu's Coalition JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chairman of the opposition Kadima Party struck a deal early Tuesday morning to form a unity government, a surprise move that staves off early elections and creates a new coalition with a huge legislative majority. According to the three-page agreement that Mr. Netanyahu and the opposition leader, Shaul Mofaz, signed after midnight, Mr. Mofaz will become a deputy prime minister, standing in for Mr. Netanyahu when he is abroad and joining all closed sessions of the cabinet. A former defense minister and military chief who has been critical of the government's aggressive focus on the Iranian nuclear threat, Mr. Mofaz will be "in charge of the process with the Palestinians," according to a Kadima spokesman, Yuval Harel, who said that "part of the deal is to turn on the process." The unity agreement came hours after the Israeli Parliament took the first steps toward dissolving itself ahead of elections scheduled for Sept. 4 rather than at the end of the government's term in October 2013. With his coalition divided over how to replace a law expiring Aug. 1 that exempted many ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, Mr. Netanyahu had said in a speech to the convention of his right-leaning Likud Party on Sunday night that he wanted early elections to avoid the instability of a campaign atmosphere stretching over more than a year. But even as the political establishment here was kicking into high gear in recent days, leaders of the Likud and Kadima parties had been in secret negotiations that culminated at midnight Tuesday at the prime minister's home in Jerusalem, where he and Mr. Mofaz signed a contract, according to Mr. Harel. The two men then went to the Parliament building around 2:30 a.m., where they met with lawmakers from their parties, who voted to approve the deal, officials said. A news conference was scheduled for noon in Jerusalem. "It was at the initiation of both sides," Mr. Harel said in an overnight telephone interview. In a brief statement issued Tuesday morning, Mr. Netanyahu said: "A broad national unity government is good for the security, for the economy, for the people of Israel." Reaction from other political factions was swift and harsh. "This is a pact of cowards and the most contemptible and preposterous zigzag in Israel's political history," said Shelly Yacimovich, chairwoman of the Labor Party and suddenly the leader of the dwindling opposition. She vowed to "show the public that there is a political and ideological alternative," and said the deal gave Labor "a golden opportunity to lead the people eventually, if not now then in 2013, onto a new path." Yair Lapid, a popular television commentator who recently formed a new centrist party, Yesh Atid, derided the agreement as a sign of "the old, detestable, ugly politics" and predicted that "this repulsive political alliance will bury all of its participants under it." But for Mr. Mofaz, who ousted Tzipi Livni as head of Kadima in a party primary last month, and Mr. Netanyahu, who polls predicted would sail to victory in early elections, the benefits were clear. Besides gaining a ministership, Mr. Mofaz buys himself time to build up public support for his platform, keeping his party's 28 seats in Parliament rather than face elections in which polls show his faction would drop to 15 or fewer. And Mr. Netanyahu's coalition swelled from 66 to 94 of Parliament's 120 members, while broadening its ideological base. The 13-clause agreement promises that the new coalition will pass a new law by July ensuring equal national service for all Israeli citizens, including those religious Jews who had avoided the draft the study Torah. It also calls for an overhaul of the electoral process itself by year's end. Kadima lawmakers would also head several key parliamentary committees, including foreign affairs and defense, and economics. In the interview, Mr. Mofaz criticized the prime minister's foreign policy focus, saying that a greater threat to Israel than Iran was the continuing conflict with the Palestinians. Arik Bender, a writer for the daily newspaper Maariv, called the developments "Shaul Mofaz's night," writing in an analysis piece that he "saved the ship of Kadima from sinking at the very last moment, assured himself a prominent position in the government, and secured coalition favors for his party." He said the deal dealt a "painful blow" to Ms. Yacimovich, and a "mortal" one to Mr. Lapid.