MK Effi Eitam wants to join Likud

Sources say matter not final; former minister Benny Begin meets with Bibi, agrees on his return to Likud.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
benny begin 224.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
benny begin 224.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Only hours after reports that former science minister Benny Begin's intends to return to the Likud surfaced, NU/NRP MK Effi Eitam announced that he has decided to run for a place on the Likud list. Senior sources in the Likud, however, said that Eitam could not "force himself" on the party, and that he had "no place" on the list. They clarified that the matter was "not settled." Speaking on Sunday evening, Eitam commented that he had decided not to join the new Rightist party which NU/NRP MKs founded in an attempt to present a united Right-wing Zionist party, as he believed it would be identified only with the religious public. The Likud received a big boost when Begin announced he is returning to the party that was once led by his father, former prime minister Menachem Begin. The surprising move gave Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu the endorsement of a man who left the party in anger in January 1997 to protest Netanyahu relinquishing most of Hebron and personality conflicts between the two. It also gave the Likud a Knesset candidate with a reputation as an honest and humble politician, the same image enjoyed by its main competition in the February 20 race, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. Begin's return was engineered by Likud MK Reuven Rivlin, who is Begin's upstairs neighbor in an apartment complex in Jerusalem's Yefei Nof neighborhood. Rivlin said Netanyahu and Begin had met three times over the last week at Rivlin's home. "In recent weeks, I realized that Benny wanted to return to a position of influence," Rivlin said. "I asked Bibi [Netanyahu] whether he wanted him and he said he would be honored if he returned. When they met, they brought up every aggravation one had against the other in their mutual history, and then they were ready to work together again." A veteran hawk on diplomatic and security issues, Begin received promises from Netanyahu that he would neither divide Jerusalem nor return the country to pre-1967 borders. Begin formally resigned from his post as head of the Israeli Geological Institute on Sunday, ahead of Wednesday's deadline for government officials to quit their jobs to run for Knesset. He submitted the letter to his boss, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of Labor. At a memorial service for his father's late adviser, Harry Hurwitz, at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Sunday evening, Begin declined to talk to reporters, because his resignation only takes effect on Tuesday, and until then, as a government employee, he is forbidden to talk politics. Begin is expected to give a press conference on Tuesday, in Tel Aviv, at Likud headquarters. Begin spoke cordially at the event with his former cabinet colleague and fellow Likud prince Dan Meridor, who is expected to join him in returning to the Knesset with the party. While Begin and Meridor are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, Likud officials said there was plenty of room for both in the party. Likud officials revealed that unlike Begin, who declined an offer of a reserved slot on the party list, Meridor is actively seeking one and Netanyahu is waiting for the right time to ask his party's institutions to grant him the right to give such slots to Meridor and perhaps former IDF chief of General Staff, Lt-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon. "Meridor is not as popular as Begin in the party and it is very possible that if he did not have a reserved slot, he would not get elected," a source close to Netanyahu said. "If that happened, it would not only humiliate Meridor. It would be very embarrassing and damaging to the party." Besides Begin and former IDF spokeswoman Miri Regev, who joined the party on Sunday, and Ya'alon and Meridor, who are on the way, Netanyahu hopes to bring in to the Likud key business leaders, former basketball star Tal Brody (originally of Trenton, New Jersey) and Kadima MK Marina Solodkin, who is one of the most popular politicians among immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Sources close to Netanyahu said they were glad that Begin set a precedent of running for Knesset without asking for a reserved slot and that the same was true of former major-generals Uzi Dayan and Yossi Peled and former Israel Police chief Assaf Hefetz. Netanyahu is also putting pressure on former minister Natan Sharansky to return to politics. Likud officials said it was extremely unlikely that he would run for Knesset, but that it was possible that he would agree to serve in Netanyahu's cabinet. (The only member of the cabinet who must be an MK is the prime minister.) Government Press Office head Danny Seaman suspended himself from his post on Sunday in order to investigate the possibility of running for a spot on the Likud list. "I'm glad that there is a wave of people coming back to the Likud," Netanyahu told reporters at his party's Tel Aviv headquarters. "Many, many people in the country see the Likud as hope for a new path."