That portion of the NRP that plans to resign from the government tonight held a press conference this morning explaining its move. The four MKs - outgoing Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev, and Sha'ul Yahalom, Nissan Slomiansky, and Gila Finkelstein - now join their two predecessors, party leader Effie Eitam and MK Yitzchak Levy, in the opposition. However, peace and tranquility does not yet reign between the two groups.
MK Effie Eitam, who was sharply attacked at the press conference for his decision to buck the party organs and quit the government five months ago, told Arutz-7 today,
"Today is not the time to go into what happened in the past. The main thing is that we are now all together where we are supposed to be, and that is in the opposition, with the entire Torah world. By going into the opposition, the NRP brings about a nearly-unprecedented situation in which the government does not have a religious representation; it is also carrying out the very grave step of giving up parts of Israel and uprooting entire communities of Jews. It is a minority government, going against the entire Torah world, in relying upon the left-wing - and in what is of greatest concern to me, Sharon is stretching the country's capacity for unity to the furthest extent possible. Until now, there were at least two ways of bringing the tensions to manageable, democratic levels, but the Prime Minister has bodily blocked both of them." The reference was apparently to a national referendum on the expulsion plan, and new elections.
Eitam acknowledged the tensions within the NRP, though he said, "The disengagement is causing tensions in all the parties: Between Landau and Olmert in the Likud, between Barak and Peres in Labor, and in the NRP as well. I'm not trying to hide the fact of our arguments, but we will start a new registration drive on Thursday and refresh the ranks and hopefully start on a new path."
Eitam said that a new political framework is still a possibility, from his point of view:
"We won't start a new party, but rather will join up with Tekumah-Moledet, or at least something new within the NRP - but certainly not something totally new, and preferably one list uniting all of us. Even better would be an all-inclusive policy for all the religious and hareidi parties; we need a new strategy that will unite all of us in some way, in light of the bankruptcy of the Likud's right-wing ideals, and the government's attack on Torah institutions - something that will represent the entire Jewish-Torah world."
MK Effie Eitam, who was sharply attacked at the press conference for his decision to buck the party organs and quit the government five months ago, told Arutz-7 today,
"Today is not the time to go into what happened in the past. The main thing is that we are now all together where we are supposed to be, and that is in the opposition, with the entire Torah world. By going into the opposition, the NRP brings about a nearly-unprecedented situation in which the government does not have a religious representation; it is also carrying out the very grave step of giving up parts of Israel and uprooting entire communities of Jews. It is a minority government, going against the entire Torah world, in relying upon the left-wing - and in what is of greatest concern to me, Sharon is stretching the country's capacity for unity to the furthest extent possible. Until now, there were at least two ways of bringing the tensions to manageable, democratic levels, but the Prime Minister has bodily blocked both of them." The reference was apparently to a national referendum on the expulsion plan, and new elections.
Eitam acknowledged the tensions within the NRP, though he said, "The disengagement is causing tensions in all the parties: Between Landau and Olmert in the Likud, between Barak and Peres in Labor, and in the NRP as well. I'm not trying to hide the fact of our arguments, but we will start a new registration drive on Thursday and refresh the ranks and hopefully start on a new path."
Eitam said that a new political framework is still a possibility, from his point of view:
"We won't start a new party, but rather will join up with Tekumah-Moledet, or at least something new within the NRP - but certainly not something totally new, and preferably one list uniting all of us. Even better would be an all-inclusive policy for all the religious and hareidi parties; we need a new strategy that will unite all of us in some way, in light of the bankruptcy of the Likud's right-wing ideals, and the government's attack on Torah institutions - something that will represent the entire Jewish-Torah world."