By MATTHEW WAGNER, GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
The united religious Zionist list being created by the National Religious Party and National Union is ready to join Labor and Kadima in the free agent market and seek a Sephardi candidate for the next Knesset, NRP chairman Zevulun Orlev said on Tuesday.
Orlev said the list would fail unless it changes its Ashkenazi image and adds Sephardi MKs to its ranks.
"Among NRP's four MKs and National Union's six there is only one Sephardi, Yitzhak Levy, and he is not even identified as Sephardi," said Orlev. "That is a problem. I will demand that this is rectified as a condition for uniting with the National Union."
The Sephardi vote has come to the forefront in the present election especially after Amir Peretz, the Labor underdog with a strong Moroccan identity beat out Shimon Peres to take over party leadership.