The Knesset installed MK Shual Mofaz as Vice Premier Wednesday by a vote of 71 to 23 following an hour-long break, in which the revelation of a secret oral coalition agreement threatened to derail the deal.

Minutes before the Knesset was meant to vote on installing Mofaz as a minister in the new unity government, National Union MK Uri Ariel demanded that any other stipulations to the deal, which may have been reached orally, be clarified, including whether other ministries were offered to Kadima.

Ariel asked Netanyahu if there was an "appendix" to the coalition agreement which offered Kadima ministerial positions, suspecting backroom agreements between the prime minister and Mofaz.

In a letter he sent to Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin, Ariel wrote "Unfortunately, there is a great fear that the coalition agreement between Kadima and Likud as it was submitted on the Knesset table does not reveal all the agreements and understandings concerning appointments that were promised to the [Kadima] faction."

Labor MK Isaac Herzog, speaking just after Ariel, demanded that the vote be postponed, asking the prime minister directly if any additional "oral agreements" had been made that were not included in the written deal.

Netanyahu said such items had been discussed, but nothing was signed, understanding that only written and signed agreements needed to be presented at the Knesset on Wednesday.

"In negotiations, there are talks about things that might happen in the future," Netanyahu said. "They also involved possibility of ministers."

Speaking after the vote, Ariel said "It turns out that the prime minister speaks the truth, and may God bless him."

"I brought this up because I was told, and I know that Kadima was promised [other] ministries." (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 05/10/12)