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Last update - 00:00 18/11/2008 For national religious, the party's over By Nadav Shragai Tags: Knesset, National Union, NRP  When the National Religious Party will be asked to issue its own death certificate today, it will be Abraham Marmorstein who will shed a tear. Marmorstein, 87, is one of the party's founding fathers. NRP's disappearance into a new, unified rightist party is a painful experience for him. Marmorstein remembers the "historical moment of unification," he says, when the representatives of the Mizrahi and the Hapoel Hamizrahi movements hugged some 52 years ago, after announcing the formation of the NRP - or "Mafdal," as it is known in Israel, after its Hebrew acronym. Marmorstein goes on to say that his eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren were all brought up in the spirit of that movement and its institutions. Advertisement Uri Elitzur, the son of renowned bible scholar Yehuda Elitzur and children's author Dvora Elitzur, also grew up in a Mafdalnik home, but he is less nostalgic about the party's disappearance. Elitzur, who led NRP's media campaigns through several general elections, says there is little reason to mourn the party, because the only thing that will change, he says, is the party's name. "Mafdal simply swallowed up its smaller partner, National Union," Elitzur says. "Although it will change its name, NRP Chair Zevulun Orlev will remain the strongman in this merger. And he also commands a majority in the public council that will draw up the party's list of candidates for the 18th Knesset. I have no doubt that he will have a decisive influence on the list's makeup." Two weeks ago, following months of negotiations, NRP and the parties making up the National Union, Moledet and Tekuma, announced their plan to disband and form a single political party. The National Union's Effi Eitam opted against the union and instead joined the Likud, hoping to find a place there in the upcoming primary. "Eitam realized everyone was ridiculing him and thinking of him as a doormat, so he couldn't afford to join," Elitzur ventures. NRP, he says, is undergoing a facelift because its old political formula is no longer politically viable. "It can't even pass the voting threshold to get into the Knesset," he says. Elitzur, a highly-esteemed columnist and deputy editor-in-chief of the Makor Rishon daily, believes that for the past two decades NRP has mainly been a "social party." Its image among the general public, of a party primarily concerned with opposing territorial concessions, is unfounded, he says. "Therefore, the decision to have the new party focus mainly on education, Jewish identity and social matters is nothing new, it's just an attempt to make the public realize that this is [and has been] the party's focus." Indeed, independent bodies concerned with evaluating legislative performance have found that during the 15th and 16th Knesset, NRP was one of the Israeli parliament's excelling parties when it came to legislation on social matters. Except this failure in branding pales in comparison to the party's lack of success in tapping into the Sephardi vote. Dr. Asher Cohen, a scholar studying Israel's modern-Orthodox public, believes NRP has never been able to recover from the loss of votes to Shas, the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party. The numbers prove him right. Up until the 1981 election, NRP regularly secured 10 seats in parliament and above. After NRP split into two splinter groups - one Ashkenazi and another Sephardi - the party lost four seats. The Sephardi splinter party, Tami, soon died, but Shas quickly arose on its ruins, and has since stood as a firm wedge between NRP and Sephardi constituents. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Settler rampage Video shows settler shooting Palestinian in the stomach from point-blank range. Living side by side An historic Chicago synagogue neighbors Barack Obama's house.   1.   IT APPEARS THAT NO ONE CARES 10:43  |  Jay A Friedman 19/11/08   2.   NRP MIZRACHI 01:09  |  Frankie 05/12/08

Read & React Israel braces for settler violence in wake of Hebron house evacuation Responses: 118 Avi Issacharoff: Hebron settler riots were out and out pogroms Responses: 140 Traditional circumcision raises risk of infection, study shows Responses: 48 Obama's 'Palestinian friend' laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast Responses: 133 More Headlines 03:47 Bush: America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon 02:38 Report: Lebanese general Aoun met Mossad agents during Paris exile 23:58 Palestinians protest rampage by Hebron settlers 00:22 Israeli embassy in Mexico gets mail with explosive trace 02:56 Jimmy Carter to visit Syria, Lebanon next week 21:24 Study finds genes of Sephardic Jews still strong in Spain 07:29 Obama's 'Palestinian friend' laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast 19:52 Egyptian group slams Arab world's poor human rights record 21:53 Amid Hebron tensions, U.S. tells nationals: Keep out of Jerusalem 21:25 U.S. Treasury announces sanctions on dealing with terror suspects 22:45 El Al plane makes emergency landing in T.A. due to fire on board 21:51 VIDEO / IDF bolsters forces across West Bank in wake of Hebron house eviction 14:53 ANALYSIS / Hebron settler riots were out and out pogroms 15:21 Chabad, family of Mumbai victims at odds over nanny's media interviews 07:58 Traditional circumcision raises risk of infection, study shows 08:00 Report: India has proof Pakistan spy agency linked to Mumbai attacks Previous Editions Select Day 05 dec 04 dec 03 dec 02 dec 01 dec 30 nov 28 nov 27 nov 26 nov 25 nov 24 nov 23 nov

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