To get a more complete picture of the "Likud rebels" camp, Arutz-7 phoned Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, and asked him, "The Prime Minister may be planning to present you with an ultimatum tomorrow: Either disengagement, or new elections. Which would you choose?"
Edelstein: "Elections are better... Look, it's not the ideal situation, but if we're threatened with new elections, then I wouldn't be afraid. It's also not such a realistic option: It's not like it was when Ehud Barak resigned [as Prime Minister], because now the law has been changed, and the Knesset must vote to dissolve itself - and I don't see that happening so quickly."
Arutz-7: "Your party colleague Ehud Yatom said that his Knesset seat is less important than the Land of Israel, and you just said something similar. How many of you in the 'rebels' camp would agree to go to new elections in order to stop the disengagement?"
Edelstein: "It's a good question, and in truth, I don't know. But you could also ask the opposite: How many of those who say they support Sharon and the disengagement would actually support him in his threat to hold new elections in order to get the disengagement off the ground? I don't know if they would be so happy to endanger their Knesset seats..."
Arutz-7: "Do you think that the NRP should remain in the coalition?"
Edelstein: "I don't think that they should quit at this point, but of course it's something that must be checked anew every day."
Edelstein: "Elections are better... Look, it's not the ideal situation, but if we're threatened with new elections, then I wouldn't be afraid. It's also not such a realistic option: It's not like it was when Ehud Barak resigned [as Prime Minister], because now the law has been changed, and the Knesset must vote to dissolve itself - and I don't see that happening so quickly."
Arutz-7: "Your party colleague Ehud Yatom said that his Knesset seat is less important than the Land of Israel, and you just said something similar. How many of you in the 'rebels' camp would agree to go to new elections in order to stop the disengagement?"
Edelstein: "It's a good question, and in truth, I don't know. But you could also ask the opposite: How many of those who say they support Sharon and the disengagement would actually support him in his threat to hold new elections in order to get the disengagement off the ground? I don't know if they would be so happy to endanger their Knesset seats..."
Arutz-7: "Do you think that the NRP should remain in the coalition?"
Edelstein: "I don't think that they should quit at this point, but of course it's something that must be checked anew every day."