Of the 120 Knesset members, 2 voted against dispersion yesterday. One of them is MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) with whom Arutz Sheva spoke this morning, Thursday.
Glick says that contrary to rumors and reports in the media, his move was not a mistake at all.
“I voted like most of those who voted wanted to, but for political reasons didn’t,” he said. “If you asked personally most of the Knesset members, they would tell you that they did not want to go to elections, both in the opposition and in the coalition, but politics forced itself on their positions."
MK Glick makes it clear that the main reason that led him to vote in opposition to almost all his friends is the supreme need he sees in promoting the law to ban the advertising of smoking products. "I see this as the most important law this Knesset made, and now the dispersion will block it. This is a law that saves lives and makes a revolution here and has a long gestation process. Now we have reached the birth stage and we are not allowing the baby to come out."
MK Glick adds that he is "working to annul the decree" and is trying to include the law in the deliberations of the agreement committee, in which coalition leaders will convene to discuss which laws will be promoted in the coming week despite the Knesset's Dispersal Law. "We must not allow a situation in which the politics of the wealthy beats out the public interest of human life. Thousands of children are joining the terrible cycle of smoking and we are deeply behind compared to the Western world. We are in 138th place in the struggle against smoking. I told the Knesset committee this is a crime, and I came to tears because I saw before me all those who died of smoking.”
As for the election campaign, Glick says, "We must ensure that the Likud list of the Knesset will be with attractive people, not people who disgrace the Knesset, that people will be elected who are connected to the struggle over the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and everything the Likud symbolizes, people connected to people, without hate and haughtiness. I think that the more attractive the Likud is, the more we can return to forty-eight or fifty seats."
"The voters for the ‘Gantzes’ and ‘Lapids’ and ‘Kahlons’ should have voted for Likud and aren’t, because some of the Likud MKs were not suitable for the job. Therefore I think it's important for the Likud to come with an attractive, respectable and stately lineup. At the same time I call parties on the right not to cause votes to be lost," says Glick and calls on Moshe Feiglin, Dr. Michael Ben Ari and others to refrain from causing a loss of votes, while mentioning that "Yisrael Beytenu is also on the scales," and there is also a significant fear of losing votes in the right-wing camp there.
Arutz Sheva also asked MK Glick when he, Tzipi Hotovely, Ze'ev Elkin, Yuli Edelstein and perhaps others would take votes from Jewish Home. Glick replies: "The Jewish Home has seats and we steal them? The Jewish Home was given seats during the creation of the world? I do not understand.”
"When we ask the Jewish Home about the difference between them and the Likud, they do not say that they are religious, but that the Likud is a left-wing party. I have not heard the Jewish Home struggling for conversion, for the Temple Mount and for other religious-related struggles. They have left the issues of religion and state to Yair Lapid. They do not speak about the religious aspect but about their opposition to a Palestinian state, but all Likud members are opposed to a Palestinian state."
And what about the prime minister's position about a “Palestinian state minus?” Glick says that Netanyahu's terminology makes it clear that this is not a real country.
"There are excellent people in the Jewish Home and I wish we could unite. I really hope we don’t act slanderously. I apologize if slander or blaming was understood in my words. I offer to go hand-in-hand so that we do not attack and slander each other, but make sure to bring back to the public parties that have elements of statehood and love of Israel, which appear lacking in us to the public. If we present lists that contain these values, the public will once again vote for the Likud and, as far as I’m concerned, the Jewish Home as well."