Reunited pensioners: We're no coalition shoo-in

Justice for the Elderly chairman: "We are joining forces to stop the big parties from eliminating us."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
gil pensioners 298 88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
gil pensioners 298 88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni cannot take for granted that the newly reunited Pensioners Party will join the new coalition she is forming, party leaders Rafi Eitan and Moshe Sharoni said Wednesday night. Eitan and Sharoni held a joint press conference at Tel Aviv's Beit Sokolow to announce they were reuniting six months after a bitter breakup that resulted in Sharoni and MKs Elhanan Glazer and Sarah Marom-Shalev leaving to found the rebel Justice For Pensioner's Party, which was briefly affiliated with Russian-Israeli billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak. The reconciliation came at the urging of Livni, who wants to have 60 MKs from Kadima, Labor, Meretz and the reunited Pensioners locked up in her coalition to pressure Shas to join. But Eitan and Sharoni said they would take advantage of their new bond to fight Livni for the best possible coalition deal. "Having one Pensioners Party that represent all old people gives us more power," a reinvigorated Eitan said. "There will be negotiations with Kadima. We will tell them that there are clauses in the deal they signed with Labor that are unacceptable to us." Sharoni said that in return for joining the coalition, he would demand that the government pass bills costing billions of shekels that would cut pension fees, lower medicine prices and make the benefits of widowers equal to those of widows. "We are not in anyone's pocket," Sharoni said. "We won't join the government without this legislation. If they don't pass the bills, we have no problem staying in the opposition." Sharoni said he did not expect the seven-MK faction to be granted a third portfolio for himself, especially if the faction did not reunite completely. Glazer objected to the reunification and said he preferred to remain an independent, one-man faction. The other lawmakers said they did not miss him. "I'm happy to announce the return of MK Sarah Marom-Shalev and MK Moshe Sharoni to their original party, the only party representing pensioners in this country," Eitan told reporters. "We will not let young people like the Labor chairman [66-year-old Ehud Barak] or anyone else represent the elderly. The elderly will always represent themselves." Eitan blasted Barak for trying to reach a deal with Sharoni on parliamentary cooperation. Sharoni said reports of him joining Labor were premature and exaggerated. "If we would have joined Labor, would have been swallowed up," he said. "We didn't want to have to depend on a party that hasn't cared about pensioners for 58 years." Labor MK Ophir Paz-Pines blasted Barak for not doing enough to reach a deal with Sharoni that would have upped Labor's mandates from 19 to 22. He said Sharoni used Labor to up the price he got from Rafi Eitan. "The Pensioners taught Labor a lesson in politics," Paz-Pines said. "Apparently there are no shortcuts to 22 seats, which we will only receive with real, hard work. Labor was once again led by the nose. If this is how we conduct negotiations with Sharoni, it's no wonder we achieved so little in negotiations with Kadima." Defending the deal with his former nemesis Sharoni, Eitan said: "A husband and wife can live together for decades, have a fight and get back together. We love each other. We had a conflict, separated, and came back together. What's wrong with that?"