MK Gila Finkelstein calls the current regime "the destruction government of Arik and Omri," referring to the Prime Minister and his Knesset Member son. "I will fight against our party's entry into the government with all my might," she said today.
On the other hand, party leader Zevulun Orlev and MK Sha'ul Yahalom say that no doors should be slammed shut. Yahalom told Arutz-7 yesterday that the NRP could do much more for the religious public from within the government than from without, and that if certain conditions are met, he would be willing to join.
Similar arguments were heard throughout 2004, as four party MKs defended their decision to remain in the disengagement government after the other two - Eitam and Levy - resigned from the government.
"Our demands are," Yahalom said, "that the terrible fear of additional retreats and the destruction of outposts be removed; the renewal of settlement activity in Judea and Samaria; the cessation of the Dovrat Reforms [in the educational system]; and the renewal of government-sponsored religious services."
"Let's assume we were in the government right now," Yahalom said. "We would be able to find permanent housing for all those who were uprooted from Gush Katif, as well as solve other related problems, from within the Housing Ministry [which was manned by then-NRP member Effie Eitam]... The issues that we deal with are so numerous that we have to be in the coalition. When the NRP was in the coalition, our Zevulun Orlev was the chairman of the ministerial committee for religious affairs and he was about to rejuvenate the issue of religious services. If the NRP's important demands for a Jewish state are met, and the question is whether to join the coalition or allow [ultra-secular Shinui Party leader MK Tommy] Lapid to be in the coalition and institute his changes, then certainly the NRP must join."
MK Orlev made similar remarks, though late last week he said that now was not the right time to join "because of the tremendous anger within our public towards the government."
MK Finkelstein said today, "Will we once again sell our principles for the lentil soup of ministerial positions?"
MK Nissan Slomiansky said, "The issue of joining the government has not come up for discussion, and to me it appears totally unrealistic - unless Prime Minister Sharon decides that all the Jews will return to Gush Katif or something like that." He said that the demands mentioned by Yahalom are not practical.