Budget meeting fails
Lapid and Poraz refuse to support the budget after Sharon rejects their terms; Lapid says Sharon now responsible if disengagement thwarted
A meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and senior Shinui party members Thursday, called in a bid to persuade the party to support the state budget, ended without agreement.
Shinui Chairman Yosef Lapid and pary member Avraham Poraz presented Sharon with two options, which they said would convince them to support the budget: either Sharon allow them to join the government without preconditions or he redirect NIS 290 million currently earmarked for the United Torah Judaism party.
In response to their demands, Sharon said he had no intention of breaking his agreement with UTJ "for no reason."
We agreed to support the budget, even as the opposition, on condition the NIS 290 million is not transferred to the ultra-Orthodox, Lapid said upon leaving the meeting.
"Sharon rejected the idea and all responsibility for the disengagement's failure now falls on him," he said.
The two Shinui members were summoned to the meeting following a message directed at Sharon in a Ynet interview with Poraz.
“If we are spoken to, we are likely to reach an agreement,” Poraz said in the interview.
