MK Rabbi Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism) explained today why his party called off coalition negotiations with the Likud yesterday: \"In order for a party to join the government, the coalition has to tell it, \'We want you to join us in running the country, and here are your fields of responsibility.\' But in this case, the Likud offered us nothing. I\'m not talking about what powers we were to have, but rather what our three Deputy Minister were supposed to do every day when they came to work. They have to have something to do. For instance, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof insisted that as Deputy Defense Minister, she be given responsibility for Israel Aircraft Industries - and she got it...
\"The problem is that the Likud has nothing left to give, while and Shas and Yisrael B\'Aliyah, the parties who are responsible for the ministries we are talking about, don\'t want to share their powers with us - and I don\'t even blame them. It\'s the fault of the Likud for not planning in advance how to distribute the various portfolios and deputy-ministries, and forgetting that it also has to worry about us and the NRP. It\'s true that Sharon has a nice coalition as it is, but does he really need a coalition that relies on the support of Labor? He should have formed a coalition with a margin of support with his natural partners that doesn\'t have to rely on Labor... We are different than the NRP, however, in that we will support the government, because it accepted our document on the issues that we were interested in - but on the other hand we are not bound to follow coalition discipline, nor do we have to vote for private initiatives by ministers, and we can raise our own private bills. It\'s actually a very convenient situation for us...\"
\"The problem is that the Likud has nothing left to give, while and Shas and Yisrael B\'Aliyah, the parties who are responsible for the ministries we are talking about, don\'t want to share their powers with us - and I don\'t even blame them. It\'s the fault of the Likud for not planning in advance how to distribute the various portfolios and deputy-ministries, and forgetting that it also has to worry about us and the NRP. It\'s true that Sharon has a nice coalition as it is, but does he really need a coalition that relies on the support of Labor? He should have formed a coalition with a margin of support with his natural partners that doesn\'t have to rely on Labor... We are different than the NRP, however, in that we will support the government, because it accepted our document on the issues that we were interested in - but on the other hand we are not bound to follow coalition discipline, nor do we have to vote for private initiatives by ministers, and we can raise our own private bills. It\'s actually a very convenient situation for us...\"