Right unites, but touted head Eitam quits NRP for Likud

MK Effi Eitam is ditching the National Union-National Religious Party for Likud, he announced yesterday.

Eitam had spent the last two weeks meeting with members of his party to discuss a full merger of the right-wing factions that make up National Union-NRP, and he appeared to be planning to run for leadership of the merged party.

"The new party that will be established will be a sectarian party - religious Zionist-traditional, which does not open its doors sufficiently to the nationalist secular public," Eitam said yesterday.

Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu refused to reserve a spot for Eitam on the party's Knesset list, so Eitam will run in the primary. He hopes to win votes from supporters of Likud's right-wing Jewish Leadership faction, headed by Moshe Feiglin.

Meanwhile, MK Aryeh Eldad, a member of the new Hatikvah party, which aims to win the votes of the secular right wing, has announced he will not join the merged National Union-NRP party.

Hatikvah has said it will run for the Knesset, but sources on the right said the decision is not final. Baruch Marzel's far-right National Jewish Front party is also hoping to get into the Knesset in the next election.

National Union-NRP, for its part, is expected to announce today or tomorrow the full merger of three of the four factions that comprise it - NRP, Tekuma and Moledet. MK Yitzhak Levy, a member of the Ahi faction - along with Eitam, until now - said he is leaning toward remaining in the merged party.

The party's new chairman will be elected in an open primary. Candidates for the post include Zevulun Orlev and Uri Ariel, and possibly Benny Elon. A 30-member public committee including public figures, academics and rabbis will be responsible for compiling the Knesset list. The committee plans to include four new faces in the top 10 slots, including two secular candidates and a woman.

The party aims to focus on Jewish identity issues, education and society, with issues concerning the Land of Israel to come lower down on the priority list.

MK Eliyahu Gabbay (NRP), for one, objects to the deal.

"The proper and democratic way of bringing about full unity out of mutual respect to the various factions in religious Zionism is via the establishment of a joint committee on a reasonable basis," he said. "Therefore, we should add new members to the NRP committee, based on a ratio of 1,000 members for every three Knesset members, and create one united framework that includes the representatives of all the parties that are members of the National Union."

Gabbay said if the NRP committee does not vote on his proposal, he won't sign the agreement to abolish the NRP's elected institutions and establish a public committee.