|
World Jewish News
Coalition talks kick off with NU reps
26.02.2009
The Likud kicked off its second day of official coalition talks on Thursday by meeting representatives of the National Union party at Ramat Gan's Kfar Hamacabiah Hotel.
At the start of the talks, Gideon Sa'ar, who was leading the Likud negotiating team which also included Yaacov Ne'eman, and advisor to Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, Natan Eshel, praised the National Union for its role in the opposition during the last government.
"The National Union and the Likud served in the opposition together for three years, and now it's only natural that we run the country together," he said.
In response, the National Union said that it was looking forward to a strong, long-lasting government led by Likud which was willing to implement the will of the people.
"In the election the voters, by electing 65 MKs on the Right, dictated that they want more Eretz Yisrael, more education, more tradition, and more national pride," said MK Ya'akov Katz, who led the NU negotiating team which also included Uri Ariel and Arye Eldad. "I hope the Likud forms a stable, long-lasting government that would show the world that we are strong and do not cower to them like worms."
Both the National Union party and Habayit Hayehudi were scheduled to meet the Likud during the day, and both were expected to issue demands that they know the party would not accept.
Habayit Hayehudi will ask for the Education portfolio, which it held for many years when it was called the National Religious Party. But in those days, the NRP was much larger than its current three Knesset seats and held the balance of power.
The National Union will ask for the Construction and Housing Ministry, despite reports that Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu promised it in October to Ariel Attias of Shas in return for not allowing Kadima leader Tzipi Livni to form a coalition.
United Torah Judaism has also asked for the portfolio, or at least to control its Israel Lands Administration via a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office.
Neither Habayit Hayehudi nor the National Union have decided what their fallback options would be. The National Union, which won four seats two weeks ago, is expected to also ask for a deputy minister in the Defense Ministry who would be in charge of settlements.
Ariel said that party chairman Katz will seek to be a minister, despite an agreement he signed that would require him to quit the Knesset if he joined the cabinet, to allow the party's fifth candidate, Uri Bank, to enter the Knesset.
Katz had considered becoming a deputy minister instead of a minister in order to avoid quitting the Knesset or harming his integrity by backing out of a signed agreement. But he was convinced that he had to join the cabinet because if not, the party would not be represented on key ministerial committees.
The National Union will request that the West Bank return to be categorized as a priority area for government subsidized mortgages, in addition to the Negev and Galilee. They will also ask for the upgrading of the college in Ariel to a University.
Habayit Hayehudi is seeking a multiyear plan to fight poverty, expansion of Jewish education in state secular schools and the leadership of the ministerial committee on helping evacuees from the Gush Katif bloc of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu will meet on Thursday with Meretz chairman Haim Oron, but the chance of him joining Netanyahu's cabinet is considered zero.
Источник: JPost.com
|
|
