MK Sharoni left alone in rumored Pensioners split

Fellow party MKs Sarah Marom-Shalev and Elhanan Glazer say they would not leave the party.

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
sharoni 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
sharoni 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
The glory days of the 2006 elections seem farther away than ever for the Gil Pensioners Party Wednesday as party MKs continue to drop hints and innuendos about the embattled party's rumored split. Gil Party Chairman MK Moshe Sharoni, who is at the epicenter of the looming quake together with MK Rafi Eitan, said Wednesday that the party was in the midst of a schism and that he had been in contact with Social Justice Party head Arkadi Gaydamak. Sharoni's statements to Arutz 7 came hours after reports that fellow party MKs Sarah Marom-Shalev and Elhanan Glazer would not leave the party, as they had threatened earlier this week. Discontent within Gil was running high due to a general feeling within the party that none of the party's goals had been achieved, and that they had given up their platform for the sake of staying in the coalition. Sharoni currently stands at the head of the party faction in favor of leaving the coalition - while Eitan, who holds the position of pensioners affairs minister, is in favor of remaining. On Monday, it seemed as though Marom-Shalev and Glazer would follow Sharoni out, but those expectations dissipated in the Wednesday rumor mill. Instead, Glazer may soon find himself serving as an assistant minister in the very coalition that he allegedly was positioning to leave. Although Sharoni denied it as mere rumor, there has been talk since Monday that Glazer was offered the position of assistant minister for pensioners affairs in exchange for his renewed loyalty.