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A protest and counter-protest held in Bnai Brak on Tuesday evening turned ugly after one person allegedly pepper spray at a police officer, and police used force in an attempt to disperse haredi protesters from the scene. On Monday, organizers of the anti-government protests against judicial reform announced that they would be demonstration outside the home of MK Moshe Gafni, a member of the United Torah Judaism party (UTJ). "The demonstration will be the opening salvo in a broad process against the involvement of haredi Knesset members in advancing laws to create a coup d'état, and we will first be...

Former prime minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become Israel's next prime minister, according to Tuesday night's exit polls. According to the polls, Netanyahu's bloc, which includes Likud, Religious Zionist Party (RZP), United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, crossed the 61-seat threshold and will be able to form the next coalition. In some of the polls his bloc reached 62 seats. What do the exit polls say? Netanyahu's Likud party is expected to receive 30 seats according to Channel 12 and 31 seats according to Channel 13, while Lapid's Yesh Atid party is expected to get 24...

May. 17, 2006 0:44 | Updated May. 17, 2006 5:48 Olmert promises UTJ 5-year extension of Tal Law By ANSHEL PFEFFER Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised United Torah Judaism that the coalition will support a five-year extension of the Tal Law. Although the law, which allows yeshiva students to defer their army service, was not canceled by the Supreme Court in its ruling last Thursday, the court stressed that the law ran against civil equality and may be considered unconstitutional in the future. While official coalition talks between UTJ and Kadima are to resume only in a couple of...

Apr. 22, 2006 11:23 | Updated Apr. 22, 2006 23:32 Olmert, Peretz agree on largest government ever By GIL HOFFMANOlmert and Peretz - partnersInterim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor Chairman Amir Peretz talk in the Knesset during its inaugural session. Photo: Associated PressIsrael will have its largest government in history with 27 ministers by the end of the week, according to an agreement reached on Thursday night between Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor chairman Amir Peretz, sources close to both men said Saturday. Olmert and Peretz met after 11 p.m. at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and...

Knesset rejects 3 no-confidence votes The Knesset rejected by wide majority three no-confidence votes issued by opposition parties. (Ilan Marciano) Peres blames Shinui for power of religious party Vice Premier Shimon Peres on Monday blamed the Shinui party for the power the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party has to demand changes in the state budget. "If Shinui would vote in favor of the budget, United Torah Judaism would not have bargaining power," Peres said. (Attila Somfalvi)(02.28.05, 15:27)

Feb. 7, 2005 12:38 | Updated Feb. 7, 2005 18:40 Elyashiv, Barak support referendum By GIL HOFFMAN, NINA GILBERT, YAAKOV KATZ Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv Photo: Hatzolah Jerusalem Degel Hatorah's preeminent halachic authority Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv said Monday that he would support the Disengagement Implementation Bill if it includes a national referendum. Elyashiv's statement comes a day after the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee spent a day heatedly debating making the bill contingent upon the results of a national referendum, as long it goes hand in hand with a new basic law limiting such a referendum to relinquishing...

As a result of his unswerving determination to press ahead with disengagement, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently included the haredi United Torah Judaism party in his government, thus revealing the public face of a long-obscured ideological position and returning it to the heart of the Israeli political arena. The ideology I am referring to is, of course, that of the left-leaning non-Zionist haredim. In the 70s and 80s the late Rabbi Eliezer Schach of Bnei Brak, with his pro-peace, anti-settler rhetoric, was prominent in highlighting the existence of this group, but in practical terms he was happy to cooperate with...

Jan. 11, 2005 18:32 | Updated Jan. 11, 2005 22:18 UTJ splits over rabbinical spat By MATI WAGNER A dispute over rabbinic allegiances tore apart on Tuesday Lithuanian Degel HaTorah and hassidic Agudat Yisrael, the two parties making up United Torah Judaism (UTJ). The preeminent halachic authority of the Lithuanian haredi community, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, ordered the Degel HaTorah Mks, Moshe Gafni and Rabbi Avraham Ravitz to split themselves from the three Agudah Yisrael Mks. Gafni and Ravitz placed the blame for the split squarely on the shoulders of MK Ya'acov Litzman of the hassidic Agudat Yisrael, who accepted...

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,...

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...

Dec. 29, 2004 20:09 | Updated Dec. 29, 2004 22:12 Likud rebels blocking unity gov't By GIL HOFFMAN Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's troubles forming a national unity government intensified on Wednesday when 13 so-called Likud rebel MKs vowed not to support the appointment of Labor ministers and the disengagement implementation bill. The MKs made the commitment in a letter to United Torah Judaism MKs, in an effort to persuade UTJ not to join the coalition. The letter is seen as a last-ditch effort by the rebels to prevent the implementation of the disengagement plan by forcing Sharon to initiate early...

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...

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...

UTJ & Shas Oust NRP From Orthodox Lobby (IsraelNN.com) The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties have decided to oust the National Religious Party from the Knesset Orthodox lobby as a result of the NRP entering the national coalition government with Shinui. Rabbi Eliyahu Objects to NRP Agreement (IsraelNN.com) Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu expressed his opposition to the coalition agreement reached by the National Religious Party. The former chief rabbi is seen as an unofficial spiritual leader of the NRP. Persons close to Rabbi Eliyahu explain that he is opposed to the dismantling of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, changing...

Coalition Talks Coalition negotiations limp along in the Kfar Maccabiah complex in Ramat Gan, and no one appears to be in any rush to complete them. After the Likud negotiating team met with its counterpart in the National Religious Party today (see next article), Meretz, United Torah Judaism, and Am Echad were next. At least one UTJ representative predicted afterwards that a right-wing/religious government would be established. The talks with Meretz were, predictably, unproductive - although Arutz-7's Effie Meir reports that the Likud team promised Meretz "pleasant surprises" in the future government's policies. Am Echad's incoming MK Ilana Cohen told...

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...

Friday, January 31, 2003 Shvat 28, 5763 Israel Time: 21:05 (GMT+2) PM rebuffs rumors he will offer defense portfolio to Labor By Aluf Benn and Yossi Verter, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and AgenciesPrime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday afternoon that rumors he was going to offer Labor the defense portfolio as part of a deal to lure them into the coalition were false. According to Sharon, the issue is not open for discussion, since current defense minister Shaul Mofaz will continue at his post in the 16th Knesset. "Mofaz is a great defense minister... and will continue to be defense...