In the Olmert style to which we've become accustomed, UTJ was promised 173 million shekels and support for tax benefits for organ donors if they join the coalition.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took time out from preparation for Bush's visit to meet with United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz last week in a concerted effort to bring United Torah Judaism into his coalition as Israel Beiteinu's Lieberman and Aharonovitch threatened to remove their party from the government.
The meeting ended with a promise to allocate NIS 173 million for haredi educational and cultural institutions and to support Ravitz's proposal to provide tax benefits to organ donors. (As an aside, in 2000, Ravitz received a kidney from his son after two years of dialysis.)
Ravitz, a personal friend of Olmert's, has previously hinted his interest in joining the coalition but his fellow MKs did not agree. UTJ chairman Litzman said that if he received a good enough "offer" he would consider it now while MK Meir Porush said "Our party doesn't want to divide Jerusalem any more than Israel Beiteinu."
Porush, who is considering running for mayor of Jerusalem in November, went on to say, "I don't think we can deliver the goods in Lieberman's place."
