Litzman: I'll forgo Finance Committee chair for child allowances

Finance Committee chairman Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) said after another day of unsuccessful government attempts to oust him that he would step down willingly from the chairmanship if the government retracted some of its planned child allowance cuts.

In a proposal to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's bureau Tuesday, Litzman demanded that NIS 750 million be added to the allocations. "There is logic in this, since the government agreed to transfer 1 billion shekels for allocations if I agreed to remain in my post" by joining the coalition, Litzman said.

However, Litzman also realizes that if the coalition decides to oust him, the necessary majority will be found. Similar assessments have been heard in Shas, but the Sephardic faction has not yet decided how its members will vote on a Litzman ouster. Shas has to maneuver between coalition discipline and the understanding that Litzman's departure from the Finance Committee chair will spark an era of infighting between the two ultra-Orthodox parties.

Shas believes that this is the reason for the rare written appeal from its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to the Gerer Rebbe, Litzman's patron. In the letter, which was obtained by Haaretz, Yosef asked the Gerer Rebbe to "order MK Litzman to be so kind as to enter the coalition so as to remain at his post as Finance Committee chairman, who is on guard like a bastion for the yeshiva students ... and who knows who will come in his stead."