Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party - the party with four MKs in the government and two in the opposition - said yesterday that the Jewish communities in Gaza are no less deserving of preferred status than Sderot. The Cabinet is scheduled to pass, in its next meeting two days from now, a series of measures granting special financial benefits to Kassam-beleaguered Sderot and neighboring western-Negev towns; Gush Katif is currently not eligible for the package.
Minister Orlev wrote a letter stating that the criteria for choosing the areas to receive the special benefits are based on the dangers resulting from their proximity to the Gaza Strip. "It would therefore be more than strange," he wrote, "to include areas on which have fallen 200 shells or rockets, and not to include the Gaza Coast Regional Council in which 4,150 rockets and shells have landed."
Heading off the expected claim that the Jewish towns in Gaza are headed for destruction in any event under the disengagement plan, Orlev wrote that that Cabinet has not yet made an official decision to actually evacuate these towns: "It is therefore not conceivable to discriminate against the residents of the Gaza Coast at this stage, and especially when at issue are overt civil services."
NRP leader Effie Eitam and MK Yitzchak Levy resigned from the coalition nearly a month ago after the Cabinet voted to accept, in principle, the disengagement/withdrawal/expulsion plan. The other four party MKs, led by Orlev, refused to quit, saying that the actual decision had not yet been made, that there was still much they could do from within the coalition to block or impede the plan, and that Labor was waiting anxiously for the NRP to quit so that it could join the coalition.
Eitam explained at the time,
"The thought that we should remain in a government we don't agree with because someone else might replace us is the type of thought that can destroy an ideological movement... Let's say there is a group of cooks in a kitchen preparing a meal for hundreds of people. Suddenly the boss comes in and orders them to prepare a poisonous meal - but says that they need not serve it yet, just merely cook it. Should the cooks then start cooking the poisonous meal? After all, they can say to themselves, 'Many things can happen: maybe the boss will die, or he'll change his mind, or someone else might come and cook it even faster...' Obviously not. This is the situation that the NRP is facing right now. As it is, concrete steps [towards the disengagement] are already being taken."
Arutz-7's reporter asked Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri-Levy whether Prime Minister Sharon might respond positively to Orlev's request to include Gush Katif in the benefits package - if only to encourage the NRP to remain in the coalition. Seri-Levy responded with an emphatic no: "For one thing, he's not interested in spending an extra nickel in Gush Katif. In addition, he showed his true colors regarding both the disengagement and the NRP last week."
Seri-Levy was referring to an incident at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, when Sharon said that Gush Katif residents who wish to leave their homes could begin receiving compensation immediately. MK Sha'ul Yahalom (NRP) then protested: "But the government has not yet approved this!" Sharon then responded, "Really, Sha'ul, I know you're not naive. This is the plan that was approved, and everyone knows that the plan is going to be implemented. By the end of 2005, there will not be Jewish communities in Gaza."
Yahalom insisted, "But the government did not decide to evacuate communities."
Sharon: "You know that we had a problem passing the decision in the Cabinet, and therefore a formulation was found to approve the decision in principle that was accepted, and it will be carried out... The compensation plan will be brought for another vote in the Cabinet, and you [the NRP] will yet support it."
Minister Orlev wrote a letter stating that the criteria for choosing the areas to receive the special benefits are based on the dangers resulting from their proximity to the Gaza Strip. "It would therefore be more than strange," he wrote, "to include areas on which have fallen 200 shells or rockets, and not to include the Gaza Coast Regional Council in which 4,150 rockets and shells have landed."
Heading off the expected claim that the Jewish towns in Gaza are headed for destruction in any event under the disengagement plan, Orlev wrote that that Cabinet has not yet made an official decision to actually evacuate these towns: "It is therefore not conceivable to discriminate against the residents of the Gaza Coast at this stage, and especially when at issue are overt civil services."
NRP leader Effie Eitam and MK Yitzchak Levy resigned from the coalition nearly a month ago after the Cabinet voted to accept, in principle, the disengagement/withdrawal/expulsion plan. The other four party MKs, led by Orlev, refused to quit, saying that the actual decision had not yet been made, that there was still much they could do from within the coalition to block or impede the plan, and that Labor was waiting anxiously for the NRP to quit so that it could join the coalition.
Eitam explained at the time,
"The thought that we should remain in a government we don't agree with because someone else might replace us is the type of thought that can destroy an ideological movement... Let's say there is a group of cooks in a kitchen preparing a meal for hundreds of people. Suddenly the boss comes in and orders them to prepare a poisonous meal - but says that they need not serve it yet, just merely cook it. Should the cooks then start cooking the poisonous meal? After all, they can say to themselves, 'Many things can happen: maybe the boss will die, or he'll change his mind, or someone else might come and cook it even faster...' Obviously not. This is the situation that the NRP is facing right now. As it is, concrete steps [towards the disengagement] are already being taken."
Arutz-7's reporter asked Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri-Levy whether Prime Minister Sharon might respond positively to Orlev's request to include Gush Katif in the benefits package - if only to encourage the NRP to remain in the coalition. Seri-Levy responded with an emphatic no: "For one thing, he's not interested in spending an extra nickel in Gush Katif. In addition, he showed his true colors regarding both the disengagement and the NRP last week."
Seri-Levy was referring to an incident at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, when Sharon said that Gush Katif residents who wish to leave their homes could begin receiving compensation immediately. MK Sha'ul Yahalom (NRP) then protested: "But the government has not yet approved this!" Sharon then responded, "Really, Sha'ul, I know you're not naive. This is the plan that was approved, and everyone knows that the plan is going to be implemented. By the end of 2005, there will not be Jewish communities in Gaza."
Yahalom insisted, "But the government did not decide to evacuate communities."
Sharon: "You know that we had a problem passing the decision in the Cabinet, and therefore a formulation was found to approve the decision in principle that was accepted, and it will be carried out... The compensation plan will be brought for another vote in the Cabinet, and you [the NRP] will yet support it."