National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu party members voted this afternoon to remain in the government, overriding objections from party leader Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze\'evi. However, they have also begun forming a new right-wing front. Arutz-7 Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri reports that several right-wing ministers have now come to the conclusion that Sharon is following Peres, and that they were mistaken in thinking that Sharon\'s goal was to achieve unity on behalf of the ultimate goal of destroying the Palestinian Authority. Instead, they now feel that there is a real threat that Sharon may soon sign what they call an \"Oslo III\" agreement. In order to get Sharon to abandon this strategy, Seri reports, they will try to gather the support of government ministers such as Hanegbi, Livnat, Rivlin, Landau, Shas party ministers, and others. Minister Avigdor Lieberman will report to the group-in-formation on Sunday as to how much support he has managed to canvass, and the next steps will be decided at that point.
MK Yuri Stern (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) was asked by Arutz-7 today why his party, the most right-wing in the coalition, is remaining in the government and in effect supporting Sharon\'s policy of restraint, which has come under attack even from some elements in the left. Stern:
\"The question is what it means to support and how we can object. We constantly look at the political map and we try to see how we can best effect the desired change. Our leaving the coalition will not weaken it, because our place will be quickly taken by the NRP, at best, or in a worse scenario, by the Center party. This will only strengthen the left-wing of the coalition…\"
Former Techiya-party MK Elyakim HaEtzni of Kiryat Arba participated in the discussion, and said that he is in favor of toppling the government:
\"Toppling the government now would not bring the left-wing back to power [because Labor is too weak]. But what I\'m worried about is that if Sharon continues his policies for another month or two, this will give the left-wing its margin of victory. Why? Because Arik Sharon is proving the left\'s claim that the right wing has no way to deal with the problem!…
\"Something has happened over the past couple of days. There was an Egyptian threat of war. Egypt said that if we fight back against the PA, Egypt would join the war. This means that the peace agreement with Egypt no longer exists, as it is dependent on Israel\'s acceptance of continued terrorism. Under this threat of war, Israel did three things: It sent Omri Sharon to Arafat to tell him that we would not touch him, or his infrastructures; then it sent Peres to the threatening country itself, to Egypt, where he gave Arafat an insurance policy that we would not touch him or his territory; and third, Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer announced today the same things. In other words, there is a total capitulation before the Egyptian threat of war… This is why, as soon as Peres returned from Egypt, we faced this attack in Binyamina… And worst of all, the Palestinian state is just around the corner… In this situation, an honest man cannot remain in this government. Instead of leaving and serving as a personal example, however, they form new committees and fronts…\"
MK Stern responded:
\"First of all, it is not right to accuse politicians of ulterior motives for deciding not to leave the government. The fact is that a \'personal example\' was shown by [HaEtzni\'s] Techiya party in 1992, when they brought down the Shamir government and thus led to the ascent of Rabin to the government… I agree with much of HaEtzni\'s sharp analysis, but not the part about the insurance policy, because nothing of that sort has been decided; we still play a major role in this government and will ensure that it does not happen…\"
MK Yuri Stern (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) was asked by Arutz-7 today why his party, the most right-wing in the coalition, is remaining in the government and in effect supporting Sharon\'s policy of restraint, which has come under attack even from some elements in the left. Stern:
\"The question is what it means to support and how we can object. We constantly look at the political map and we try to see how we can best effect the desired change. Our leaving the coalition will not weaken it, because our place will be quickly taken by the NRP, at best, or in a worse scenario, by the Center party. This will only strengthen the left-wing of the coalition…\"
Former Techiya-party MK Elyakim HaEtzni of Kiryat Arba participated in the discussion, and said that he is in favor of toppling the government:
\"Toppling the government now would not bring the left-wing back to power [because Labor is too weak]. But what I\'m worried about is that if Sharon continues his policies for another month or two, this will give the left-wing its margin of victory. Why? Because Arik Sharon is proving the left\'s claim that the right wing has no way to deal with the problem!…
\"Something has happened over the past couple of days. There was an Egyptian threat of war. Egypt said that if we fight back against the PA, Egypt would join the war. This means that the peace agreement with Egypt no longer exists, as it is dependent on Israel\'s acceptance of continued terrorism. Under this threat of war, Israel did three things: It sent Omri Sharon to Arafat to tell him that we would not touch him, or his infrastructures; then it sent Peres to the threatening country itself, to Egypt, where he gave Arafat an insurance policy that we would not touch him or his territory; and third, Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer announced today the same things. In other words, there is a total capitulation before the Egyptian threat of war… This is why, as soon as Peres returned from Egypt, we faced this attack in Binyamina… And worst of all, the Palestinian state is just around the corner… In this situation, an honest man cannot remain in this government. Instead of leaving and serving as a personal example, however, they form new committees and fronts…\"
MK Stern responded:
\"First of all, it is not right to accuse politicians of ulterior motives for deciding not to leave the government. The fact is that a \'personal example\' was shown by [HaEtzni\'s] Techiya party in 1992, when they brought down the Shamir government and thus led to the ascent of Rabin to the government… I agree with much of HaEtzni\'s sharp analysis, but not the part about the insurance policy, because nothing of that sort has been decided; we still play a major role in this government and will ensure that it does not happen…\"