Yesterday: Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of Shinui, when asked about the possibility that his party would sit in the same coalition government with a hareidi/religious party, said:
"There's a two-letter word, and it's NO. We represent an alternative to the hareidi parties, and there's no chance that we would sit together with the hareidim."
This morning: Poraz, asked a similar question, replied:
"If we're talking about a large national unity government of 80 MKs, and five of them happen to be from United Torah Judaism, and especially in these difficult times, then we would be able to consider it."
The Shinui Party Knesset faction today approved party leader Justice Minister Tommy Lapid's proposal to agree to sit with the UTJ in a government that also includes Labor - on condition that the coalition guidelines on religion are not changed. Shinui also demands that the Tal Law regulating yeshiva students' army exemptions be changed, and that the "couples pact" - another form of civil marriage - be approved.
Shinui still says it refuses to sit with Shas, which is considered more "militant" than UTJ.
Three MKs of Shinui voted against the proposal to sit with UTJ - Ilan Liebowitz, Yigal Yasinov and Chemi Doron - while 11 voted in favor. MK Yossi Paritzky, who resigned as in shame from the Cabinet last month after revelations of his plans to "kill [politically]" party colleague Avraham Poraz were publicized, did not take part. Many Shinui opponents, such as MKs of the "other" left-wing party, Yachad, as well as some supporters, have criticized Shinui's leaders, saying that it appears that the party's ideals are made of "bubble gum" in order to help them remain "glued" to their Cabinet chairs. Members of the youth wing of northern branches of Shinui warned that they would end their membership in the party if it ends its boycott of the hareidim. One member said that he told Mr. Lapid, "If you join a government with the hareidim, we will give the party a 'donkey's burial' [an ignominious burial]" - a reference to a recent threat made by Lapid himself against Labor if the latter were to join up with UTJ without Shinui.
Arutz-7's Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri-Levy reports that Knesset Members of United Torah Judaism appear to be quite pleased with the developments. MK Moshe Gafni of UTJ said today that there is no possible platform that that can possibly unite his party with Shinui: "Just like we made an ideological decision not to take part in the government when [ultra-left-winger and anti-religious] Shulamit Aloni was Education Minister [under Yitzchak Rabin], we cannot sit with Tommy Lapid as Justice Minister and Poraz as Interior Minister."
Gafni also noted the corruption in Shinui, "which has been in power only a year and a half, and has already displayed corruption in a senior minister, with allegations against a second - whereas we are now in our fourth generation in politics, and never has even one of our number been accused of corruption."
It is likely that Shinui's new flexibility can be attributed to the progress being made in the coalition talks underway between the Likud and United Torah Judaism. The latter's major demand concerned the collapse of the Torah institutions in the wake of the recent budget cuts. A joint committee will be formed to consider the yeshivot's financial straits and possible solutions.
A Shinui source said that Prime Minister Sharon had promised UTJ that if he faced a choice of either UTJ or Shinui, he would choose the former. MK Effie Eitam (National Religious Party) called on the United Torah Judaism party not to turn its back on its voters by propping up a government that plans to carry out the disengagement/expulsion from Gaza and northern Shomron.
"There's a two-letter word, and it's NO. We represent an alternative to the hareidi parties, and there's no chance that we would sit together with the hareidim."
This morning: Poraz, asked a similar question, replied:
"If we're talking about a large national unity government of 80 MKs, and five of them happen to be from United Torah Judaism, and especially in these difficult times, then we would be able to consider it."
The Shinui Party Knesset faction today approved party leader Justice Minister Tommy Lapid's proposal to agree to sit with the UTJ in a government that also includes Labor - on condition that the coalition guidelines on religion are not changed. Shinui also demands that the Tal Law regulating yeshiva students' army exemptions be changed, and that the "couples pact" - another form of civil marriage - be approved.
Shinui still says it refuses to sit with Shas, which is considered more "militant" than UTJ.
Three MKs of Shinui voted against the proposal to sit with UTJ - Ilan Liebowitz, Yigal Yasinov and Chemi Doron - while 11 voted in favor. MK Yossi Paritzky, who resigned as in shame from the Cabinet last month after revelations of his plans to "kill [politically]" party colleague Avraham Poraz were publicized, did not take part. Many Shinui opponents, such as MKs of the "other" left-wing party, Yachad, as well as some supporters, have criticized Shinui's leaders, saying that it appears that the party's ideals are made of "bubble gum" in order to help them remain "glued" to their Cabinet chairs. Members of the youth wing of northern branches of Shinui warned that they would end their membership in the party if it ends its boycott of the hareidim. One member said that he told Mr. Lapid, "If you join a government with the hareidim, we will give the party a 'donkey's burial' [an ignominious burial]" - a reference to a recent threat made by Lapid himself against Labor if the latter were to join up with UTJ without Shinui.
Arutz-7's Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri-Levy reports that Knesset Members of United Torah Judaism appear to be quite pleased with the developments. MK Moshe Gafni of UTJ said today that there is no possible platform that that can possibly unite his party with Shinui: "Just like we made an ideological decision not to take part in the government when [ultra-left-winger and anti-religious] Shulamit Aloni was Education Minister [under Yitzchak Rabin], we cannot sit with Tommy Lapid as Justice Minister and Poraz as Interior Minister."
Gafni also noted the corruption in Shinui, "which has been in power only a year and a half, and has already displayed corruption in a senior minister, with allegations against a second - whereas we are now in our fourth generation in politics, and never has even one of our number been accused of corruption."
It is likely that Shinui's new flexibility can be attributed to the progress being made in the coalition talks underway between the Likud and United Torah Judaism. The latter's major demand concerned the collapse of the Torah institutions in the wake of the recent budget cuts. A joint committee will be formed to consider the yeshivot's financial straits and possible solutions.
A Shinui source said that Prime Minister Sharon had promised UTJ that if he faced a choice of either UTJ or Shinui, he would choose the former. MK Effie Eitam (National Religious Party) called on the United Torah Judaism party not to turn its back on its voters by propping up a government that plans to carry out the disengagement/expulsion from Gaza and northern Shomron.