"Different approaches" are revealing themselves in the United Torah Judaism Knesset faction. MK Yisrael Eichler said last night that the party's MKs "would prefer to abstain" in the vote on the disengagement, but will of course defer to the decision of the party's rabbinical leaders.
MK Avraham Ravitz, on the other hand, came out sharply against his colleague, accusing him of left-wing tendencies, and saying that what Eichler said is simply untrue. "I wish to make it clear that I strongly protest what he said," Rabbi Ravitz said.
Eichler had said that the MKs are torn between the warnings of bloodshed caused by the disengagement, and the desire to end the current bloodshed there, and they therefore wish to abstain.
Asked his own opinion on the disengagement, Rabbi Ravitz said, "My practice is never to express my own opinion on something that our rabbis are going to be asked to rule on. Prime Minister Sharon also asked me yesterday how we are going to vote, and I told him the same thing; I didn't tell him, and you want me to tell you?!"
Arutz-7 asked Rabbi Ravitz if it was possible that the rabbis would in fact instruct the MKs to abstain in the vote, or would that be simply a non-decision on their part? "It would not at all be a non-decision," he said. "It would be a perfectly legitimate course of action given the circumstances." He did not rule out any possibility, including that the MKs might be given freedom of choice as to how to vote.
Arutz-7's Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri-Levy notes that the opinions within the 5-man UTJ faction are divided: "Eichler pulls sharply leftwards, while [Meir] Porush pulls completely to the right. In between are Ravitz and [Yaakov] Litzman, and [Moshe] Gafni is slightly left-of-center. But in the end, it depends on what the rabbis say."
MK Avraham Ravitz, on the other hand, came out sharply against his colleague, accusing him of left-wing tendencies, and saying that what Eichler said is simply untrue. "I wish to make it clear that I strongly protest what he said," Rabbi Ravitz said.
Eichler had said that the MKs are torn between the warnings of bloodshed caused by the disengagement, and the desire to end the current bloodshed there, and they therefore wish to abstain.
Asked his own opinion on the disengagement, Rabbi Ravitz said, "My practice is never to express my own opinion on something that our rabbis are going to be asked to rule on. Prime Minister Sharon also asked me yesterday how we are going to vote, and I told him the same thing; I didn't tell him, and you want me to tell you?!"
Arutz-7 asked Rabbi Ravitz if it was possible that the rabbis would in fact instruct the MKs to abstain in the vote, or would that be simply a non-decision on their part? "It would not at all be a non-decision," he said. "It would be a perfectly legitimate course of action given the circumstances." He did not rule out any possibility, including that the MKs might be given freedom of choice as to how to vote.
Arutz-7's Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri-Levy notes that the opinions within the 5-man UTJ faction are divided: "Eichler pulls sharply leftwards, while [Meir] Porush pulls completely to the right. In between are Ravitz and [Yaakov] Litzman, and [Moshe] Gafni is slightly left-of-center. But in the end, it depends on what the rabbis say."