January 15, 2003

Am Ehad campaign focuses on economic issues

By Nina Gilbert

Am Ehad leader Amir Peretz declared his party's focus on socioeconomic issues, calling them the greatest threat to the future of the nation.

Peretz, whose hometown of Sderot was hit by three Kassam rocket on Sunday, said people "flee the country" and border towns because of the economic hardship and not security threats.

Yet he promised that his party would support an uncompromising war on terror and exploit "all avenues to reach peace."

Ora Namir, No. 5 on the Am Ehad list, who is a former Labor Party minister of social affairs, said the government has "fraudulently" planned to cut National Insurance Institute payments just after the January 28 election. She slammed the Likud, Labor, Shas and Shinui for supporting the budget cuts.

She warned that the ongoing cuts to NII subsidies would push another 200,000 children below the poverty line and reach some 731,000 next year.

According to Namir, the cuts to the weakest sectors were also designed to just scrape the NIS 4,428 poverty line for a family of four. She said that such a family would have their NII subsidy reduced by NIS 938 in early February.

Namir warned that the Treasury would try to cut another NIS 5 billion from the NII as it struggles to finance budget commitments. She said that the NII was established to give "social security," and its financial system must stay out of the hands of the Treasury.

The Am Ehad Party ran for the first time in the 1999 election, winning two seats. It is now polling at between three and four seats.

Besides the votes of loyal union members, the party is counting on its No. 4 Adisu Masala to rein in the vote of most Ethiopian immigrants. According to party officials, the Ethiopian vote is worth about two Knesset seats.

Former Shas MK David Tal, No. 3 on the Am Ehad list, is expected to bring in Shas voters.

Labor MK Yossi Katz has quit the Labor Party and endorsed Am Ehad. Katz, Namir, Tal and Peretz are all former chairmen of the Knesset Labor and Social Affairs Committee.

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