By <a href="mailto:shragai@haaretz.co.il" class="tUbl2">Nadav Shragai</a>
The Yesha Council of settlements has begun lobbying ministers to support a cabinet resolution that would require every stage of the U.S.-backed road map for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement to be approved separately.
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During Benjamin Netanyahu's term as prime minister, a similar resolution was adopted concerning the Wye Agreement. This resulted in the cabinet eventually refusing to approve one of the stages of the agreement.
The Yesha Council is also planning a major demonstration against the road map in Jerusalem this next Monday and various other protest activities. One of these will be a revival of the "face to face" program that it instituted during Ehud Barak's government, in which right-wing activists go house to house passing out literature on the importance of the settlement enterprise and the dangers of a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, the National Union faction was divided yesterday over whether to quit the government in response to the cabinet's approval of the road map. MKs Zvi Hendel and Uri Ariel, the two representatives of Tekuma - one of the three parties that make up the National Union - favor leaving immediately, but there does not yet appear to be a majority for this move even within Tekuma, much less within the National Union as a whole.
Even former chief rabbi Avraham Shapira, one of Tekuma's spiritual mentors, told the MKs that there was no reason to leave yet, because at the minute, the cabinet's decision is merely words rather than deeds.
Moledet, another of the parties that comprise the National Union, is also divided over whether to quit the government. Party leader Benny Elon opposes the idea, arguing that it will be easier to torpedo the road map from within the government than from the opposition.
Elon believes that the most important arena right now is not Israel but the United States - and it would be easier to muster pressure on President George Bush from members of Congress or Christian supporters of Israel as a cabinet minister than as an opposition member. But there are other Moledet members, including MK Aryeh Eldad, who favor quitting.
Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the National Union's third faction (Yisrael Beiteinu), originally opposed leaving the government, but is now having second thoughts.
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