MK Tzvika Mor of the Religious Zionist party, the father of former Hamas hostage Eitan Mor, called on Thursday for a unity government led by the two largest parties, saying that is the clear message of the election results, while sharply opposing any role for the Arab parties in the next coalition.
“What did the voter tell us? He told Binyamin Netanyahu, ‘You can’t form a government alone,’ and he told Gadi Eisenkot, ‘You can’t form a government alone.’ You must go together,” Mor said in an interview on 103FM, days after he was sworn in to the Knesset for the first time. “How symbolic it is that after the terrible massacre we went through, with all the atrocities, all the hostages, the people of Israel come and tell us, ‘Go together.’ Now the country must be saved. We really are in existential danger.”
Mor said he could not ignore the 19 Knesset seats won by the Arab parties. “I’m not sleeping at night because of these 19 seats, 19 seats that do not condemn the terror organization Hamas that did all these things to us,” he said. “These parties do not recognize the State of Israel. They disgraced one of the symbols of the state when they walked out during the anthem at the Knesset swearing-in. In what parliament in the world could such a thing happen? Could this conversation between us have taken place on October 8, 2023? Because three years have passed? We cooled off? We don’t understand what is facing us?”
He said that anyone who accepts the government’s basic guidelines, as set by the heads of the two largest parties, should be welcome to join. “I hoped very much that we would win, big. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I stand with humility before the Israeli voter and say, this is what is wanted from us, so let’s do it, together,” he said.
Asked about Democrats leader Yair Golan, Mor pointed to common ground. “We are Jews, this country was established first of all for the Jewish people, we have responsibility for the coming generations, we serve in the army and both of us are ready to give our lives in the army,” he said, praising Golan for heading out on October 7.
Mor said the security challenges facing Israel demand that the political camps work together. “We have the Iranian nuclear program, woe to us if we don’t deal with it together. We have to finish the job in Gaza, woe to us if we leave Hamas standing for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said. “What is developing in Yehuda and Shomron, 70,000 armed men with long weapons, who will deal with all of this?” Mor’s staff filed his first bill at 4:00 PM on Tuesday, while he stood in the Knesset plenum taking his oath of office. “I couldn’t wait. Nor did I want to,” he wrote. The bill would limit hostage deals to one terrorist released for each captive, or up to five in wartime, and would bar the release of terrorists with blood on their hands, those who have served less than two-thirds of their sentences and those freed in an earlier deal who returned to terror. Under the bill, no negotiations would begin until an international body meets the hostages and reports on their condition. It builds on the work of former Religious Zionist MK Ohad Tal and on the conclusions of the Shamgar Committee.
Mor also shared that one of his sons, who enlisted as a combat soldier at the start of the war, was discharged from the army earlier this week.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
