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Shinui Chair Yosef Lapid last night. Avraham Poraz and five other Shinui MKs have announced they will resign from the party. (David Bachar)Mercy killing for terminally ill party By Yossi Verter Shinui's 170-member council did a great kindness yesterday to Yosef Lapid, Avraham Poraz and the rest of Shinui's feeble and failing leadership: By their vote, they shortened the party's death and moved up the final blow the party would have received in any case on election day, March 28. The question of whether Lapid and his colleagues will completely abandon politics or set up a new party called...

Last update - 20:19 24/11/2005 Lapid: Name of Sharon's new party resembles Mussolini slogan By Mazal Mualem and David Ratner, Haaretz Correspondents Shinui Chairman Yosef Lapid said Thursday evening that had Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consulted with him, he would have urged him to change the name the latter chose for his new political party. Speaking at a Shinui council meeting, Lapid said that the name "Kadima" (Hebrew for forward) should be changed because it is similar to the Avanti slogan used by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The Shinui members who met Thursday did not set a date for primaries...

Yishai says “Lapid needs a psychiatrist” Shas opens new front against Shinui head, accuses him of racism. Denies campaign related to coalition talks and fact Lapid agreed to serve with UTJ.Yifat Zohar Shas Chairman MK Eli Yishai. Shas Chairman MK Eli Yishai has declared a concerted campaign against Shinui Chairman and Justice Minister Yossef Lapid. “I recommend that the minister of health send the chief psychiatrist to examine the chairman of Shinui, Minister Yossef Lapid “, Yishai declared on Tuesday. At a meeting of Shas activists, Yishai said that the campaign would begin in the coming days and continue until...

Aug. 1, 2004 20:10 | Updated Aug. 2, 2004 17:45 Shinui reverses objections to coalition with Haredim By GIL HOFMAN AND NINA GILBERT Avraham Ravitz: "kick them in some sensitive spot" Photo: Knesset Lapid: "Sometimes you need to risk being asked 'why did you promise'." Photo: AP "There is a moment when you need to give up a bit of your ego and risk being asked 'why did you promise'," Shinui leader Yossef Lapid told reporters Monday after his Shinui faction voted overwhelmingly to consider staying in the government if United Torah Judaism becomes a supporter as long as the...

Sharon and Lapid discuss coalition negotiations Ilil Shahar Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Shinui Chairman Yossef Lapid are meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the latest developments in the coalition negotiations. Sharon-Yishai meeting ends NRG Maariv The meeting between premier Ariel sharon and Shas leader Eli Yishai has ended. Both men praised the "positive atmosphere". (2004-07-22 16:26:21.0)

Dec. 11, 2003 The Turbo touch The panel entrusted with the task of choosing a new attorney-general earlier in the week disqualified Justice Minister Yosef Lapid's candidate, Yoram Turbowicz, seemingly on a technicality. In fact, the commission's motives went deeper. Much was made of the fact that the committee nixed Turbowicz because by its count he hadn't spent the minimum time required – 10 years – in legal practice. By Turbowicz's own reckoning it was a full dozen years. But to quibble over these details is to miss the point. The committee never got to seriously deliberate Turbowicz's credentials, nor...

Nov. 4, 2003 Shinui to formally propose evacuating Netzarim By ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM (1) Two Israeli soldiers comfort each other after the bodies of three of their comrades were taken away at the Netzarim Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. (2) Justice Minister Tommy Lapid and (3) Interior Minister Avraham Poraz Photo: AP Shinui, the second largest party in the coalition, proposes dismantling a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and halting targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists to revive peace talks, a spokesman said Tuesday. The proposal by the moderate Shinui party, to be formally presented next week, would be...

Oct. 26, 2003 The people want a plan By NACHMAN SHAI Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, the justice minister, has sharp instincts, possibly going back to the time he was a journalist and later a television commentator in the early days of the television shoutfest Popolitica. As a panelist he always knew how to find the right word, the right reaction. It is very possible that those qualities, and others, are what carried him to the peaks of politics. He became a minister and head of the second-biggest party with 16 seats. Last week, he unexpectedly stood up and admitted: We made...

Feb. 27, 2003 Mitzna: We will be a responsible, firmly committed opposition By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF Labor Chairman and opposition leader Amram Mitzna on Thursday criticized the projected political and economic policies to guide Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new government, as they were reflected in the latter's earlier inauguration speech, saying the opposition under his leadership would be a "responsible, firmly committed" one. In a speech before the Knesset, Mitzna said a coalition comprising the three large parties the Likud, Shinui and Labor was within Sharon's grasp, but he decided not to pursue it. He criticized Shinui's chairman,...

Feb. 25, 2003 Sharon's prospective new cabinet By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF Assuming the rightist National Union goes ahead with plans to sign a coalition agreement tonight with the Likud, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new cabinet will have a number of new players with just several top ministers remaining the same. Binyamin Netanyahu will likely stay on as foreign minister, and Shaul Mofaz will continue as defense minister. Also expected to continue in her post is Education Minister Limor Livnat. The rest of the lineup is likely to be different, according to media reports. Ehud Olmert, the former mayor...

Feb. 24, 2003 Shas accuses Sharon of betrayal, excommunicates NRP By GIL HOFFMAN Shas officials reacted angrily to being left out of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government on Monday, issuing scathing criticism of Sharon and his coalition partners, Shinui, and the National Religious Party. The party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, called Sharon, "the king of garbage cans," and compared Shinui to garbage and refuse. On the verge of tears, Yosef said that the National Religious Party behaved worse than anti-Semites by bringing a secularist party like Shinui into the government. Yosef called upon his MKs to do everything possible...

Likud in ferment Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is giving important portfolios to other parties, leaving none for the Likud. Yoav Yitzhak 24 Feb 03 15:41Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new coalition, consisting of the Likud, Shinui, and the National Religious Party, with the possible addition of the National Union Yisrael Beitenu, is likely to lead to the formation of a government enjoying the support of 68 Knesset members (MKs). This coalition is oriented towards the center, with an extreme right wing element. Sharon, however, cannot even count on the support of his own party. The Likud members are storing up resentment...

No progress in Likud-National Union coalition talks By Yossi Verter and Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service Shinui chairman Yosef Lapid at talks with the Likud on Sunday. (Photo: Nir Keidar) Coalition talks between the Likud and the far-right National Union, which vociferously opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, ended without any progress Monday afternoon. The two sides were deadlocked over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's commitment to include the notion of Palestinian statehood in the guidelines of his new government. The Likud coalition team presented a document at the meeting stipulating that the government would operate on the...

Analysis / Sharon in the center, with Shinui on the left and settlers on the right By Yossi Verter On Saturday, before the Sabbath was over, Ariel Sharon made his decision. He ordered his loyalist, Uri Shani, to close the deal with the National Religious Party and shower it with goodies: two ministers, a deputy minister, chairman of a committee and deputy speaker of the Knesset. The prime minister only forgot to tell Amram Mitzna. Yesterday morning, five hours after the media was reporting the sealed deal with the NRP, Sharon called Mitzna and ended their brief affair. Sharon knows...

Shinui and NRP deals seal 61-seat coalition for PM (UPDATE) ------------ Gil Hoffman Feb. 24, 2003 ------------ The Likud signed coalition deals with Shinui and the National Religious Party on Sunday, giving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the 61 MKs needed to form a coalition. Talks began late last night with the seven-member National Union faction in an effort to widen the coalition. The faction was expected to be offered the Transportation and Immigrant Absorption portfolios. If Histadrut chief Amir Peretz's Am Ehad Party joins the coalition, it will reach 71 MKs. Sharon ordered the coalition talks accelerated after it became...

"Unsuccessful" Talks Help Diffuse Tensions MKs Zevulun Orlev of the NRP and Tommy Lapid of the avowedly secular Shinui party met today, but disagreed on topics such as Shinui's demand for civil marriages and public Shabbat transportation in Israel. Shinui also wishes to have Reform conversion recognized. NRP leader Effie Eitam said afterwards that though he does not rule out the possibility of sitting in the same government as Shinui, it does not appear workable under the current circumstances. Although Shinui and the NRP failed to come to a mutual understanding on many of the issues facing Israeli society today,...

Sharon, Mitzna, And Lapid - All Disagree After Ariel Sharon met with Labor head Amram Mitzna this morning, it appears that a unity government with Labor is less and less likely. Sharon did not succeed in convincing Mitzna to join the coalition, though the latter said afterwards hat he would support the government on issues that "are in the national interest." Mitzna also said that "contrary to Sharon's public statements, what he told me leaves absolutely no room for us to join his government." Sharon was reported to have told Mitzna that "Netzarim [in Gaza] has strategic value, and Hevron...

Feb. 3, 2003 Shinui: We don't mind religious partners in coalition, but not in cabinet By GREER FAY CASHMAN Stepping out of a half-hour meeting with President Moshe Katsav, Shinui Party representative Eliezer Zandberg said his centrist party would agree to join a governing coalition with religious parties, but not with cabinet ministers from these factions. Zandberg said he told Katsav his party favors setting up a broad-based secular coalition under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with the Labor Party and "any other Zionist party" that chooses to join. He said Shinui "has no bias against Shas or United Torah Judaism,"...

Shinui demands tax cut as condition for joining gov't By Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz Correspondent, and Ha'aretz Service The Shinui Party is demanding a tax cut for the middle class and a ban on foreign workers entering the country - unless they work in agriculture and food services - as conditions for joining a government under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.The demands were delivered Sunday morning by MK Avraham Poraz, No. 2 on the Shinui list, in a meeting with the director of the Prime Minister's Office, Avigdor Yitzhaki. Poraz presented Shinui's demands in the economic and social spheres as part of...

Coalition Permutations Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Shinui Party leader Tommy Lapid met privately this morning for the first time since the election. They agreed during their two-hour chat to work towards the goal of forming a joint government - without the National Union. The two did not come to an agreement on Shas, however, though Lapid said he would accept United Torah Judaism as a coalition partner. Shinui's main campaign promise was that it would not sit in a coalition government together with the hareidi parties Shas and UTJ. Meretz MK Zahava Gal'on said, "It's not even 24 hours...