Tafnit party chairman Uzi Dayan, who appeared with union leaders at Monday's news conference, said that the teachers' struggle for better working conditions is just as important as the battle in the Second Lebanon War. He distanced himself from union leader Ran Erez's threat to turn to the United Nations for help but called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to back the teachers. The Prime Minister has rejected the strike as "unnecessary."

Dayan said "our children deserve better education." His Tafnit party failed to win Knesset representation in the last general elections, but he has worked in the past year for grass roots support. Dayan, a former senior IDF commander, has focused on the failure of the government to return kidnapped IDF soldiers Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.