Rabbi Elyashiv gives UTJ green light to join (new Israeli) coalition (government)

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 5 January 2004 | GIL HOFFMAN

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Jan. 5, 2005 17:43 | Updated Jan. 5, 2005 18:51
Rabbi Elyashiv gives UTJ green light to join coalition
By GIL HOFFMAN

United Torah Judaism spiritual mentor Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv on Wednesday bestowed his approval for the haredi party to join the coalition, allowing a Likud-Labor-UTJ government to be formed, UTJ MK Avraham Ravitz said.

The Ultra-Orthodox party's inclusion into the coalition is conditional however on a three-month "wait-and-see" approach relating to the Likud negotiating team's promise to provide funding to haredi educational institutions.

UTJ MKs Avraham Ravitz and Moshe Gafni will not fill any positions in the government for the next three months, and their positions will be reassessed at the end of the conditional period. "We are entering the government and not taking any positions for three months. If the government manages to carry out its coalition promises to us within that time, we will consider taking on portfolios," Ravitz told Army Radio.

Elyashiv's ruling gives Prime Minister Ariel Sharon an important political victory, giving him a parliamentary majority for the first time since the summer.

With UTJ, Labor and his own Likud, Sharon's government will have 66 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. Sharon hopes to present the new government for Knesset approval on Monday, after coalition deals with UTJ and Labor are signed.

Political pundits reacted to Elyashiv's decision saying that the nonagenarian Rabbi took the decision under the assumption that UTJ MKs would not maintain the balance of power because the coalition would have at least 61 Likud, Labor and Am Ehad MKs to lean on without them to pass Sharon's disengagement plan at the Knesset.

Ravitz explained that the Rabbi's decision was also based on the Shinui-void political arena and the Likud party's commitment to allocate NIS 290 million for haredi yeshivas (religious seminaries) and schools in exchange for UTJ's support.

Prime minister Sharon fired Shinui ministers from the coalition on December 2, when the faction voted down the government's proposed budget for 2005 in protest of the fiscal deal signed between UTJ and Likud.

Elyashiv's decision effectively gives UTJ the green light to sign a coalition agreement with the Likud, allowing the Knesset to approve the long-awaited coalition in the coming days.

Shinui Chairman Yosef (Tommy) Lapid reacted to UTJ's decision by saying: "All the billions we saved over the past two years will now be returned to the haredim as payment for the fact that they are against the disengagement."

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It does look like the Prime Minister will succeed in putting together his new coalition and avoiding new elections. If so there is pretty much nothing that will stop his disengagement plan except for Palestinian violence emenating from Gaza.