_a.jpg "Photo: Eli Elgarat")
Kadima: We have no ideology
Speaking at a Kadima conference, Education Minister Meir Sheetrit says, ‘we don't have the baggage of the heritage of Zeev Jabotinsky or Berl Katzenelson on our back.' Peres: No prime minister can make a bold move if he doesn't have at least 40 mandates
Education Minister Meir Sheetrit, speaking at a Kadima party conference, said that Kadima had disengaged itself from all ideologies.
"That is Kadima's uniqueness," he said.
"Former Labor party members sit here, former Likud members, and friends who have not been in any other parties before this. We don't have the baggage of the heritage ofZeev Jabotinsky or Berl Katzenelson on our back. We are looking only to the future."
Meanwhile, Shimon Peres addressed the apparent threat posed to Israel by Hamas.
"We know there is nothing to be afraid of; the IDF has never been more advanced, stronger, and more able to protect than today," he said.
'It's good to live in our country'
Peres called on Kadima voters not to be apathetic, and to bring the party as many mandates as possible. "No prime minister can make a bold move if he doesn't have at least 40 mandates. (David) Ben-Gurion established the State with 50 mandates. (Menachem) Begin had over 40 mandates. Yitzhak Rabin, and (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon had them too, but their mandates were comprised of a number of party lists. The fewer mandates a party has, the smaller the chance that it will make important steps, and its term will be shorter," he said.
The conference, organized by the Kadima's northern elections headquarters, headed by Kiryat Motzkin Mayor Haim Zuri, was aimed at concluding Kadima's northern elections campaign.
Some 1,300 people attended, and heard speeches by Peres, Sheetrit, and Gideon Ezra, among others.
Sheetrit added: "We (in Kadima) don't say, ‘its good to die for our country,’ but rather, ‘it's good to live in our country'."
