MK Yuri Stern (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu), together with his party MKs, will meet with Prime Minister Sharon tonight. A threat by at least part of the faction to quit the government coalition - because of the lack of military response against the Palestinians - is still in effect. Stern spoke with Arutz-7 today about the fact that most of the victims on Friday night were immigrants, and about his party\'s demands of Sharon:
\"First of all, the immigrant community has been unfortunately well-represented in the lists of casualties of other terrorist attacks, but this time the blow was of course much greater. I can only say two things: I would hope that the Israeli public would truly recognize the importance of the contributions of the immigration, as the Arabs do, and not just with lip service. Secondly, the immigrant population is not afraid to fight and die, but they are not willing to do so like sheep going to slaughter. What bothers them the most is the lack of a military response; they came to a Jewish state that, they expect, knows how to protect its citizens...
\"[Regarding tonight\'s meeting with the Prime Minister,] we don\'t use ultimatums when speaking to Sharon; he is not Barak. We see him as the leader of our camp. We just want him to take into account, together with all the other considerations, the terrible blow to national morale caused by the lack of response, even after such a strong attack. For many hours yesterday, there was absolutely no reaction, allowing the terrorists to run away and hide, and organize themselves, and even allow Arafat to come out with a ceasefire announcement. Why did this have to happen? When they were in shock, that was the time to hit - but they were given these few hours to start their propaganda machine going, which they know how to do much better than we do...\"
\"First of all, the immigrant community has been unfortunately well-represented in the lists of casualties of other terrorist attacks, but this time the blow was of course much greater. I can only say two things: I would hope that the Israeli public would truly recognize the importance of the contributions of the immigration, as the Arabs do, and not just with lip service. Secondly, the immigrant population is not afraid to fight and die, but they are not willing to do so like sheep going to slaughter. What bothers them the most is the lack of a military response; they came to a Jewish state that, they expect, knows how to protect its citizens...
\"[Regarding tonight\'s meeting with the Prime Minister,] we don\'t use ultimatums when speaking to Sharon; he is not Barak. We see him as the leader of our camp. We just want him to take into account, together with all the other considerations, the terrible blow to national morale caused by the lack of response, even after such a strong attack. For many hours yesterday, there was absolutely no reaction, allowing the terrorists to run away and hide, and organize themselves, and even allow Arafat to come out with a ceasefire announcement. Why did this have to happen? When they were in shock, that was the time to hit - but they were given these few hours to start their propaganda machine going, which they know how to do much better than we do...\"