Free Republic

Meretz youths meet in Tel Aviv pub, where movement Chairman Yossi Beilin says: 'It's better to have a weak partner than no partner' Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin said his party will seek to open a dialogue with Hamas without any preconditions. "We won't place conditions for speaking with Hamas. If it wants to talk to us – we'll talk with it," said Beilin at the Shoshana Johnson pub in Tel Aviv. The meeting was also attended by former Knesset Member Ilan Gilon. According to Beilin, "true to now, Hamas has not completely decided either. I hear three yearnings coming from...

Russia, United Nations and Meretz Warming to Hamas 11:31 Feb 10, '06 / 12 Shevat 5766 By Ezra HaLevi Russia, a member of the Quartet group that has consistently pressured Israel to accept the so-called Road Map, stunned Israel Thursday by recognizing Hamas and inviting the terror group to visit. The United States is still holding out, but stopped short of condemning the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to invite a Hamas delegation to Moscow. "Certainly, we are not going to have any contact with a terrorist organization. But as for each state, they are going to have to...

In the fall of 1968, Tzvia Greenfield, an intense 19-yearold philosophy student, stood on the lawn of the Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus warning her peers that it would be a big mistake to keep the newly conquered territories. Most, intoxicated by the miraculous victory and dreaming of the fulfillment of ancient biblical promises, resisted Greenfield's passionate arguments, which seemed incongruous with her appearance. Greenfield wore a long, dark skirt, modest, loose-fitting blouse and shoulder-length hair. She looked like what she was: a left-wing firebrand straight out of the haredi Beit Ya'acov seminary. "I told whoever would listen that God...

Barghouti´s Popularity Spurs Campaign to Free Him 02:38 Nov 27, '05 / 25 Cheshvan 5766 By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Meretz/Yahad, a potential coalition partner for PM Sharon, has called for the release of jailed terrorist Marwan Barghouti. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom vowed he will stay in jail. Barghouti won a landslide victory Friday in Ramallah in the Palestinian Authority (PA) primaries leading up to the January 25 legislative elections, taking 96 percent of the votes. He is likely to lead the list of candidates for the ruling Fatah party despite his imprisonment. Barghouti is serving multiple life terms in an...

Expensive, but necessary By Avraham Tal The Finance Ministry budgets director, Kobi Haber, estimates that the total cost of disengagement will reach NIS 5 billion, of which about NIS 2 billion will be security sector spending (the Israel Defense Forces and the police), and NIS 3 billion, civilian compensation for residents and business owners in the in Erez industrial zone. Some NIS 2.2 billion will be allocated this year in the hopes that it will suffice; if not, the hole will have to be filled from the current budget. The budgetary cost of disengagement is far from the whole bill,...

Only three days after the Meretz council voted to form a new social-democratic party called Ya'ad, the Meretz Knesset faction will convene on Wednesday to decide whether to change the party's name again – because it sounds too much like "Yad," which is the Russian word for poison. Shortly after former Meretz leader Yossi Sarid and probable leadership candidate Yossi Beilin decided on the name on Sunday night, Meretz's Russian immigrant MK, Roman Bronfman, wrote an urgent letter begging an immediate name change. Bronfman met in Geneva on Monday with Beilin and received a commitment from him to replace the...

Meretz Joins Shas on No-Confidence Motion 22:15 Oct 30, '03 / 4 Cheshvan 5764 (IsraelNN.com) The secular radical left wing Meretz party is partnering a no-confidence motion against the government with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party following today’s release of the National Insurance Institute report on the increase in poverty in Israel. In a somewhat ironic twist, former Minister of Labor & Social Affairs, Shas’ Shlomo Benizri, rejected accusations from current minister (NRP) Zevulun Orlev. Orlev pointed the finger of blame for the current situation on his predecessor, Shlomo Benizri. Benizri insists he left affairs in order and the current bleak...

Mar. 10, 2003 Ultra-Orthodox factions fail to win opposition support, call off no-confidence vote By NINA GILBERT The ultra-Orthodox factions failed to rally the Knesset opposition to back the first no confidence motion against the Sharon government on Monday, causing them to withdraw the measure just before the planned vote. United Torah Judaism MK Ya'acov Litzman was named as an alternative prime minister in the motion, as required by the new method of "constructive no confidence." But as more than 100 MKs were ready to vote at the conclusion of a three-hour debate, Litzman suddenly withdrew his candidacy. Knesset Speaker...

Sarid: My mistake was not speaking strongly enough against Arafat By Mazal Mualem "I don't think I spoke out strongly enough against Yasser Arafat. In retrospect that was a mistake that had a severly detrimental effect on Meretz," MK Yossi Sarid, who resigned last week as chairman of the party in the wake of its failure in the elections, said yesterday at a meeting of the Meretz leadership in Tel Aviv. Sarid said that his failure to distance himself from the Palestinian leader had resulted from Meretz's desire to honor the principle that negotiations should be held with elected representatives....

The Meretz party suffered a drastic setback in Tuesday's election, with exit polls indicating that the left-wing standard bearer may have lost as many as half of its seats in the Knesset. According to the Channel 1 exit poll, widely considered the most reliable, Meretz will have five seats in the next Knesset, down from the current 10. Channel 2, which relied on phone interviews in its poll, gives Meretz seven mandates; Channel 10 gives it eight. Reacting to the news, Meretz leader Yossi Sarid announced he would resign his leadership "if this is the true result." As news of...

(IsraelNN.com) Member of Knesset Yossi Sarid, the leader of the left wing Meretz Party, called on the Labor candidates who failed to secure a place on their party list to join Meretz. He was referring to left wing activists Yossi Beilin, Tzali Reshef, and Yael Dayan.