The Yisrael Beiteinu faction submitted a no-confidence motion against the new government today, because of the unilateral withdrawal plan Olmert plans to present to the U.S. later this month.
The motion was defeated, as expected, by a 50-28 vote, with 12 abstentions.
MK Yisrael Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu) explained beforehand that the motion is a form of warning "against the government's intention to once again carry out a unilateral withdrawal, ignoring the dangers caused by the previous move of this nature."
Asked if it wasn't a bit early to present such a motion, given the fact that the withdrawal might be two years away, Hasson said, "In just about ten days, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is heading for the U.S., where he will present the parameters of his plan - and once he does so, it will be hard to retract it."
Asked about the fact that his party itself was on the verge of joining the government, Hasson said, "This withdrawal plan is one of the reasons that we did not." He agreed that another reason was that party leader Avigdor Lieberman did not receive the post of Public Security Minister, but added, "We always said that we would not 'overturn the table' merely for one reason, and there were in fact several reasons for us not to join this coalition."
Hasson emphasized that Olmert must carefully review every aspect of his convergence plan. "I don't think that anyone in our party thinks that our no-confidence motion has a chance of passing in the Knesset," he said, "but it's important to raise this warning, before Olmert starts out and makes promises... Every thinking person has to ask himself whether the Disengagement from Gaza has brought us further away from, or closer to, an agreement with the PA; I believe that it has distanced us from an agreement."
The United Torah Judaism party, with which coalition negotiations have not been called off, said it planned to vote against budget this week and in favor of the no-confidence motion of Yisrael Beiteinu.
The motion was defeated, as expected, by a 50-28 vote, with 12 abstentions.
MK Yisrael Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu) explained beforehand that the motion is a form of warning "against the government's intention to once again carry out a unilateral withdrawal, ignoring the dangers caused by the previous move of this nature."
Asked if it wasn't a bit early to present such a motion, given the fact that the withdrawal might be two years away, Hasson said, "In just about ten days, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is heading for the U.S., where he will present the parameters of his plan - and once he does so, it will be hard to retract it."
Asked about the fact that his party itself was on the verge of joining the government, Hasson said, "This withdrawal plan is one of the reasons that we did not." He agreed that another reason was that party leader Avigdor Lieberman did not receive the post of Public Security Minister, but added, "We always said that we would not 'overturn the table' merely for one reason, and there were in fact several reasons for us not to join this coalition."
Hasson emphasized that Olmert must carefully review every aspect of his convergence plan. "I don't think that anyone in our party thinks that our no-confidence motion has a chance of passing in the Knesset," he said, "but it's important to raise this warning, before Olmert starts out and makes promises... Every thinking person has to ask himself whether the Disengagement from Gaza has brought us further away from, or closer to, an agreement with the PA; I believe that it has distanced us from an agreement."
The United Torah Judaism party, with which coalition negotiations have not been called off, said it planned to vote against budget this week and in favor of the no-confidence motion of Yisrael Beiteinu.