Internal elections in the National Religious Party (NRP) appeared last week to have strengthened the Young Guard faction of the party’s Secretary General and former Education Minister, Zevulun Hammer.
Whether that evolution is accurate will not become clear until the NRP national convention in July. If it proves to be correct, it will be a blow to the longtime NRP leader, Religion Minister Yosef Burg. Burg, 75, has indicated he plans to step down from his NRP leadership post and from the Cabinet.
Observers said Burg had hoped, and continues to hope he will be able to install as his successor former Knesset member Avraham Melamed. But Hammer, apparently strengthened by the election, is expected to make a bid for party leadership at the NRP July election.
FIRST ELECTIONS IN 13 YEARS
The internal elections last Thursday were the first to be held by the NRP in more than 13 years, a period marked by a steady decline in NRP fortunes. From a party of 10 to 12 Knesset seats, the NRP has been reduced to four seats, due to defections of several blocs and disillusionment over a bitterly divided leadership.
Other observers considered the election results a hopeful sign for the NRP because they signalled a return to the fold by the Matzad bloc, a breakaway group currently a part of the Morasha party. Matzad is currently led by Yosef Shapira, a Minister-With-Out-Portfolio.
Matzad leaders also claimed they had done well in the internal elections. Observers commented that if all the claims of NRP factions were totaled, they would provide 120 percent of the votes.
Party activists asserted that some 100,000 Israelis actually turned out to vote, a total, which if correct, would represent a major success for the hugely expensive public relations campaign to revive interest and support for the NRP among Israel’s moderate Orthodox Jews.
Some observers warned Thursday that the apparent setback for Burg’s faction could be a boomerang: Burg might try to renege from his commitment to quit rather than have to hand power to a rival faction leader.
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