Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot said on Sunday that the values behind national unity matter more than the political act of forming a unity government. He spoke at a study day held with his Knesset faction at Sde Boker in memory of Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, hours before negotiating teams from Yashar and Likud opened talks.
Coalition Talks With Likud
Eisenkot: Values Over a Unity Deal
The Yashar chairman held a study day at Sde Boker in memory of David Ben-Gurion just before his party's negotiating team began talks with Likud.
"It is customary to talk about unity in the context of political circumstances," Eisenkot said. "In my view, the content of unity in values is far more important than the political closing of a national unity government. The question is which shared values and issues such a government advances: in state education, in mutual responsibility, in military service, in public service and in the mutual commitment of citizens to the state, and what connects all the citizens of the State of Israel."
He added that "we are at a historic crossroads that we can, and must, reshape."
"We came here to Sde Boker to talk about unity, about mamlachtiyut, and also about military service, state education, public service and unity in Israeli society," he said, using the Hebrew term for Ben-Gurion's ideal of putting the state and the common good first. "Not only through a vote in the Knesset or talks where the headline is unity, but to see what it means in substance."
Eisenkot stressed that he was seeking more than a political partnership. "Not only in some political circumstance that allows a majority in order to create an appearance of stability," he said. "The question is which values are going to be advanced."
The day began at the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute, where Eisenkot gave opening remarks. The institute's director general, Eitan Dunitz, then led a lecture and open discussion on Ben-Gurion's concept of mamlachtiyut and his national vision. Afterward, faction members paid their respects at the graves of David and Paula Ben-Gurion. The day ended with a tour of Ben-Gurion's hut at Kibbutz Sde Boker.
Negotiations between Yashar and Likud got underway on Sunday. Yoav Horowitz and MK Chili Tropper are representing Yashar. Likud faction chairman MK Ofir Katz and attorney Michael Rabello are representing Likud. According to Kikar HaShabbat, it was later decided to add Shalom Shlomo, a representative of Beyachad (Together) chairman Naftali Bennett, to the talks.
Eisenkot's remarks come as senior figures in several parties discuss the makeup of the next government and the terms for political cooperation.
