MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) told Arutz-7 today that his party, "contrary to all predictions and evaluations, has in fact been invited to coalition negotiations with the Likud tomorrow." Asked if the National Union will join the coalition, Hendel said,
"It all depends on Sharon. If he remains loyal to the people and the land, and if he wants us in, then we'll be in. But if he talks about all sorts of maps [such as the Road Map - ed. note] other than the map of the Land of Israel, then we won't join...
"We don't want to set any conditions, but I can say that we want a nationalist government. It's time, once and for all, to try the path that we have long recommended, but which has in fact never been tried. The left-wing keeps saying, 'Look, you've tried everything - you have Sharon as Prime Minister - and it still hasn't worked.' They're right only about one thing: Sharon is the Prime Minister, but our way has still not been tried. Our way is to dismantle the PA that Israel built and send its leaders back to Tunisia, and to collect the guns that Israel gave them, and to begin protecting the citizens of Israel in an absolute manner...
"It's true that if he continues along the path of trying to establishment of a Palestinian state, we won't join the coalition, but I don't believe that he will abandon the way of his party, etc...
"There's no American pressure; it's the left-wing that keeps floating these 'threats' that the Americans will pressure us. The fact is that the Americans can't understand how it is that we still have Shimon Peres, the man who designed the Oslo process, still in the middle of our political arena!..."
Asked why Prime Minister Sharon seems to prefer Labor over the National Union, Hendel said,
"I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. We know that the courts, and most of the press, and the prosecution, etc. are in the hands of the left. He feels that if he has Labor in the coalition with him, these bodies won't go all out to bring him down, the way they did to Netanyahu. The only question is why he didn't take action all this time to strengthen the right-wing media and bring in non-leftist judges so that he wouldn't need this fig leaf..."
"It all depends on Sharon. If he remains loyal to the people and the land, and if he wants us in, then we'll be in. But if he talks about all sorts of maps [such as the Road Map - ed. note] other than the map of the Land of Israel, then we won't join...
"We don't want to set any conditions, but I can say that we want a nationalist government. It's time, once and for all, to try the path that we have long recommended, but which has in fact never been tried. The left-wing keeps saying, 'Look, you've tried everything - you have Sharon as Prime Minister - and it still hasn't worked.' They're right only about one thing: Sharon is the Prime Minister, but our way has still not been tried. Our way is to dismantle the PA that Israel built and send its leaders back to Tunisia, and to collect the guns that Israel gave them, and to begin protecting the citizens of Israel in an absolute manner...
"It's true that if he continues along the path of trying to establishment of a Palestinian state, we won't join the coalition, but I don't believe that he will abandon the way of his party, etc...
"There's no American pressure; it's the left-wing that keeps floating these 'threats' that the Americans will pressure us. The fact is that the Americans can't understand how it is that we still have Shimon Peres, the man who designed the Oslo process, still in the middle of our political arena!..."
Asked why Prime Minister Sharon seems to prefer Labor over the National Union, Hendel said,
"I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. We know that the courts, and most of the press, and the prosecution, etc. are in the hands of the left. He feels that if he has Labor in the coalition with him, these bodies won't go all out to bring him down, the way they did to Netanyahu. The only question is why he didn't take action all this time to strengthen the right-wing media and bring in non-leftist judges so that he wouldn't need this fig leaf..."