Orit Mark Ettinger appeals for unity government after elections

Orit Mark Ettinger, a media personality and writer, published an emotional letter yesterday (Tuesday) to the leaders of Israel's Zionist parties following the election results. In the letter, published against the backdrop of the political deadlock that has emerged, she details the heavy losses her family has suffered and issues an urgent call for the formation of a broad unity government.

"My name is Orit Mark Ettinger, and I think you know most of you. I am part of the Mark family and the Kalmenson family, which you certainly know well," Mark Ettinger opens her public letter, addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Lieberman, Bezalel Smotrich, Moshe Feiglin and Itamar Ben Gvir.

"I sat shiva four times in the last ten years"

In her letter, Mark Ettinger details the chain of losses her family has endured: "My father was murdered in a shooting attack in which my mother and brother were also wounded, my brother Shlomi was killed in an accident with Bedouins during his service in the ministry, my cousin Elchanan Kalmenson was killed in Be'eri, and my youngest brother Padia was killed just three years ago in Gaza."

"I sat shiva four times in the last ten years for the State of Israel," Mark Ettinger writes, adding that on election day this year she voted and then drove to the memorial ceremony for her youngest brother who fell in the Namer incident. "The truth is I have no strength at all to write now, I'm on a day when I allow myself to sit and grieve, because the loss is unbearable," she says.

Orit Mark Ettinger's Instagram story (screenshot) (Orit Mark Ettinger's Instagram story (screenshot))

"You too can pay a price"

Despite the pain, Mark Ettinger paused to address the leaders with an urgent request: "Please, please, we paid the price. For the state! The heaviest price of all. Forever. (In addition to the 600 days of reserve duty my husband did) So you too can pay a price, make concessions, for the State of Israel!"

"You too can make an effort to make things better here. Please all go together, unite for a broad unity government," she urges, and recalls the disturbing statements from the Arab parties: "The shocking statements we hear from the Arab parties are not new to us, they are just more and more worrying, they are waiting to establish a Palestinian state. A state without us!"

"The only land we Jews have"

At the end of the letter, Mark Ettinger emphasizes the deep connection to the State of Israel: "This is our only land. The blood of my father, my brothers, and my two cousins is soaked in this soil. The land my forefathers walked in, it is ours. The only land we Jews have!"

"Please take responsibility and please, form a real and good government for the people of Israel. I hope the words reach you, to the right ears," she concludes her emotional letter.

The letter is published against the backdrop of the political struggle to form a government after the elections, as political commentators argue that a unity government is a necessity. Rav Avraham Stav has also recently addressed the leaders of the change bloc with a similar call to prevent political deadlock.