Dayan decides to run alone for Knesset

Former deputy chief of general staff to run in Tafnit Party, which he founded.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
dayan, uzi 298.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
dayan, uzi 298.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Former IDF deputy chief of general staff Uzi Dayan will announce in a Tel Aviv press conference on Sunday that he intends to run for Knesset under the banner of the movement called Tafnit (Turning Point) that he founded in May. To pass the electoral threshold and enter the Knesset, Tafnit would have to receive nearly 80,000 votes in the March 28 election. Tafnit officials acknowledged that it would be difficult but said that they expect support for the party to increase rapidly. "There are many centrists in Israel who don't have a party to vote for because they cannot vote for a party like Kadima that has Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Roni Bar-On and so many people that the attorney-general's office is familiar with," said Dr. Marc Luria, a Cleveland native, who has worked with Dayan for four years in the organization Security Fence For Israel. "I think there is a good chance that we will pass the threshold because Tafnit provides a good alternative for people who want a centrist party but can't vote for one of the existing parties. Dayan was offered positions in other parties but he chose not to take them because he couldn't advance what was truly important to them without a new party." Dayan is involved in promoting social issues through the Sderot conference that he chairs, he founded an organization that promotes the security fence called A Security Fence for Israel and he recently published a plan illustrating where Israel's border should be in the West Bank. Tafnit's supporters include former Meimad MK Yehuda Gilad, Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's daughter, educator Adina Bar-Shalom, and Supreme Court chief Justice Aharon Barak's daughter, attorney Tamar Barak.