National Union ends talks with NRP

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
The National Religious Party and National Union parties apparently will not run on a joint list to the Knesset after the NRP angered the National Union by insisting on the right to break the bond after the March 28 election. "We have been meeting with the NRP for weeks and we have made many concessions, but now the negotiations are over because the NRP intended all along to split after the election and join any coalition regardless of its makeup," a National Union spokesman said. "Out of loyalty to our voters, we cannot allow the possibility that their votes would go to support a leftist secular government that would uproot settlements and return us to 1967 borders." "The NRP agreed to give up the top slot on the list in return for an agreement to emphasize education, welfare and Jewish identity, but the National Union was always looking for a way to torpedo the deal," an NRP spokesman said. "At the last minute, they raised a new demand that would have destroyed the NRP's independence." The NRP convention will convene on Tuesday in Moshav Nehalim to approve running in the election independently.