Yishai says will quit any govt that considers ‘expelling Jews from their homes’

Yahad party leader says his faction would not be party of any government that thinks about evacuating settlements in Judea and Samaria.

By JEREMY SHARON
Eli Yishai (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Eli Yishai
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Yahad chairman Eli Yishai said on Wednesday that his party will quit any government that thinks about evacuating settlements in Judea and Samaria.
Yishai made his comments as hundreds of schools observed Gush Katif Day, in the 10th year following the execution of the disengagement plan in which Israel evacuated all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in Samaria.
“The expulsion from Gush Katif is a bleeding wound in the heart of Israeli society,” said Yishai. “The government of Israel expelled more than 8,000 citizens from their homes. This was an act which was anti-Israeli, anti-security and anti-social.
“The Yahad party, which has engraved on its banner the protection of the people and the land, will not be a partner in a government that will expel Jews, and opposes any step that will advance the expulsion of Jews from their homes,” Yishai declared.
“Political avoidance of diplomatic processes is quiet agreement, we will not be quiet,” he added, implying that the party would not acquiesce to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority either.
“The Israeli Left which has still not sobered up from [the] Oslo [Accords] and the expulsion from Gush Katif continues to behave like an ostrich, and if its plans are actualized, God forbid, Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion Airport and Herzliya will all be under rocket fire, and [terrorist attack] tunnels will be dug under Kfar Saba and Ra’anana. The Yahad party has committed to oppose all initiatives that would advance the destruction of the State of Israel,” he said.
Yishai has led his party sharply to the political Right since he founded it last month, admitting to his ranks as the No. 2 on his electoral list former Bayit Yehudi MK Yoni Chetboun who is staunchly conservative in his views on security, diplomacy and religion and state.
Yishai also united his list for the election with the hardright Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party, to ensure that Yahad would cross the electoral threshold.