Right-wing opposition in the Knesset may soon receive a significant boost, at least in terms of decibel-power, if the Tehiya party goes ahead with planned personnel changes within its three-seat faction.
Due to take up seats in the Knesset are settlement leaders Gershom Shafat and Elyakim Haetzni, who will replace Tehiya’s chairman, Professor Yuval Ne’eman, and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman.
The outgoing Knesset members are known as among the quietest in the Knesset in terms of heckling or otherwise making their personalities felt, while Haetzni, who was No. 5 on Tehiya’s party list, is a real orator — whether from podium or floor.
Shafat is an experienced parliamentarian who would also add weight to the rightist party’s performance.
Political sources on Tuesday cautioned, however, that Tehiya would make the changes only if it remains a three-seat faction. But this situation could change if a current court action against the Degel HaTorah party, regarding charges of vote-rigging in the November 1988 elections, goes against the ultra-Orthodox party and results in its losing one of its two seats.
That seat would go to Tehiya, which fell just a sliver short of securing four seats in the post-election arithmetical carve-up of “remainder votes” after the election. If Tehiya grows to a four-seat faction, Ne’eman and Waldman might change their decisions to quit, these sources said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
