<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1255"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As I said before (during the Israeli elections) about Shinui, they have nothing against religious parties...as long as they are rabidly pro-Zionist militant Ashkanazi religious parties like the NRP...</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bryan</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>.................</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=265900&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=265900&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2</A>]</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><BR>Background / Lapid, Eitam have shared interest:<BR>'Just not Shas'</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>By Avirama Golan, Ha'aretz</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The agreement sealed Sunday morning, after eight hours of discussions overnight Saturday between the Likud and National Religious Party, for the NRP to join a Likud-led government that will include Shinui, could not have been reached without the willingness of the stridently secular Shinui and the pro-settler, religious NRP to sit together....Shinui...promised its voters it would only join a secular unity government, and also committed to waging war against what it termed the Orthodox monopoly. Still, Lapid never promised to try and completely separate religion from state, or even to bring about civil marriage for all. Somehow, the liberal-secular party of the middle class managed to obscure the only flag it was waving...</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And the registering of those who are determined ineligible to be married under religious law is a red herring, since the real issue is the Orthodox monopoly on matters of personal status. Transferring authority from one minister (the minister of religious affairs, usually a Shas man) to a different minister (the interior minister, who will apparently be Olmert) is not significant as long as the monopoly remains in the hands of the Orthodox.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If so, what is the main achievement of the draft agreement? It is the unwritten understanding - formulated without taking into account hundreds of thousands of religious and traditional Sephardim, most of whom serve in the army, work and pay taxes - whose bottom line is: "Just not Shas."</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>