Israel Matzav

National Union MKs Speak About Electoral Loss

The National Union and National Religious Party merged into a joint list in the hope of increasing their representation in the 17th Knesset. Most observers would say that they did not succeed. But MK Zvi Hendel - one of those expelled from Gush Katif last summer - takes an optimistic view:

Hendel, who now lives in Yad Binyamin after being forcibly evicted from his home in Gush Katif last summer, took an optimistic view of the results. "In the last elections," he said today, "the National Union ran together with Lieberman, and we received seven seats, while the NRP won six, for a total of 13 - while today, the three of us are up to 21."

Army Radio interviewer Razi Barkai said that using this logic, the Likud's drop from 38 to 11 should also be taken into account. [I think what he meant by this is that by Hendel's logic, the Likud could consider its dismal results a success because they together with Kadima Achora are 39 seats as compared with 38. It seems obvious to me that Barkai is correct here. CiJ] He did not mention that without taking Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu into account, the National Union and the National Religious Party dropped from 10 seats to 9.

Continuing his analysis, Hendel said, "The 11 MKs of the Likud are strongly right-wing, and objected to the disengagement in one form or another, so that this makes a total of 32 right-wing MKs - a strong showing. In addition, the seven MKs of the Pensioners Party are not necessarily left-wing, and in fact the party leader Rafi Eitan is definitely right-wing. Finally, the votes of the traditionally right-wing soldiers have not yet been counted, and this could give us another Knesset mandate [at the expense of the Arab Balad party, which is hovering close to the minimum threshold - ed.]"

"In short," Hendel concluded, "it is far from the truth to say that Olmert has a broad national mandate for his 'turning-inward' plan. In fact, he has only his 28 MKs; even Labor is not so enthusiastically in favor of a withdrawal without an agreement."

Olmert's advisor Dov Weisglass said the opposite: "The results show that there is a potential for 80 MKs who support or who could support such a plan." He is apparently counting the Arabs, the Pensioners, Shas, and more. Lieberman said again today that he would oppose any withdrawal from Jewish communities. [This is certainly good news. Lieberman lives in Nokdim - or at least he did the last time that I checked - which is on the hit list. CiJ].

The nine MKs of the NU/NRP are as follows:
1. Benny Elon (National Union - Moledet)
2. Zevulun Orlev (NRP)
3. Tzvi Hendel (NU - Tekumah)
4. Effie Eitam (NU - Religious Zionism Renewal)
5. Nissan Slomiansky (NRP)
6. Yitzchak Levy (NU - Religious Zionism Renewal)
7. Eli Gabbai (NRP)
8. Aryeh Eldad (NU - Moledet)
9. Uri Ariel (NU - Tekumah)

In the 10th and 11th places are Gila Finkelstein and Sha'ul Yahalom, both from the NRP. [The irony here is that two of the NU MK's - Eitam and Levy - both left the NRP during the last Knesset over the NRP's support for the unilateral withdrawal expulsion plan. CiJ]

Hendel's party colleague MK Effie Eitam sees the election results as a chance to turn the NU-NRP into the new leadership of the nationalist camp. "The Likud crushed itself," he said, "but out of this crisis, a new opportunity arises to build a new leadership for the Jewish nationalist camp in Israel. This leadership is starting with only 10 Knesset mandates, but we have patience and we have a path."

MK Hendel said that the turnout of voters in Yesha appears to have been higher than around the country, "but there were definitely some protest votes. I know young voters who voted for the Pensioners and of course for Marzel." [See this post. It would be interesting to get the actual figures. I assume that Aaron Lerner will eventually have them. CiJ]

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:36 PM