HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS' PARTY TEAMS UP WITH PRO-MARIJUANA OFFSHOOT

The Green Leaf Graduates, which split from the political party Aleh
Yarok, best known for its advocacy of the legalization of cannabis,
is making waves with its most recent announcement: a plan to
incorporate the Holocaust Survivors Party.

The Holocaust survivors are focused on the controversial issue of
their state pension disbursement, which has been weakened by rising
demands among the country's retired workers.

The party accuses the government of misappropriating funds, donated
by Germany, that were supposed to be given to Holocaust survivors.
The survivors' party alleges that instead, those monies have been
paid in part to thousands of other Israelis who have no connection to
the Holocaust, to ease the government's pension burden.

Yaakov Kfir, the party's leader, said he joined forces with the Green
Leaf Graduates to attract more attention to the survivors' cause.

"The fact that I am interviewed by so many media outlets indicates
that the decision to hook up with the Aleh Yarok graduates was
smarter than if I had chosen to go with a larger, more solid party,"
Kfir said on Wednesday.

"And that is a shos ['terrific' in Hebrew slang], as the youngsters
taught me. The voice of the Holocaust survivors is finally being
heard, and this is how I hope to get to the 350,000 Holocaust
survivors and their offspring."

Kfir, a 74-year-old survivor from Petah Tikva, has campaigned for
better health care for survivors for 25 years. But after a series of
political defeats, he finally chose to get involved in the process directly.

"I have decided that 'if I am not for myself - who will be?' It's
time we take care of ourselves, and this might be our last chance to
make sure that, despite the fact we had no childhood, we at least
reach old age decently and even be allowed to use medical marijuana
if the need emerges," Kfir said.

Michelle Levine, a spokeswoman for the Green Leaf Graduates, voiced
strong support for Kfir's cause. She described the government's
failure to address the concerns of Holocaust survivors as a "national
disgrace" and hoped that younger voters drawn to the party would be
given additional incentive to vote in order to support the survivors' cause.

"People who would vote for the survivors right now are all older.
[The survivors' party] wants to get younger people involved, like the
Pensioners Party did before," said Levine, referring to the Gil
Party's surprising 2006 success, which was fueled largely by
disillusioned young voters.

She was forthright about the Green Leaf Graduates' intention to use
support for the survivors' cause to further its own agenda of
legalizing marijuana and said that the survivors had no problem with the issue.

"They say to us that at their age they don't see why [marijuana] is
an issue," she continued. "They don't consider it drugs. They even
have friends who have cancer or something who are ashamed to ask for
a prescription. Easier access to medical marijuana is something we're
fighting for."

But despite the Green Leaf Graduates' electoral expectations, the new
partnership has flummoxed many in the Knesset, including the major parties.

Labor representative Colette Avital wondered why the Holocaust
survivors' party did not join a party where it "has a better chance."

"It doesn't make too much sense to me," said Avital, speaking to The
Jerusalem Post by phone on Wednesday, on her way to a meeting with a
group of, among others, Holocaust survivors. "The issues confronting
survivors are much too serious to be mixed up with something else."

Avital claimed that survivor issues were an integral part of the
Labor platform and that Labor "would be more than happy to include"
the survivors' party.

"In a way it's a shame because I'm not sure they'll even be able to
get in," she said. "It's a waste of votes. I haven't got a clue why
they aren't talking [to Labor]."

In a statement issued earlier, Kfir painted a very different picture.

"We, the Holocaust survivors have voted time after time for the same
people who go and betray us," he said, citing a broad feeling among
survivors that their concerns are not being taken seriously by
mainstream political parties.

"This is why I have decided to turn to the young voters and to
convince them to vote for us, so we - their grandparents - get what
we deserve: full medical treatments and nursing, if we need it."