[Peace-discuss] Sharon

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Sharon Tries to Rebuild Government
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 8:08 a.m. ET


JERUSALEM (AP) -- Ariel Sharon tried Thursday to rebuild a government left in 
shambles by the departure of the center-left Labor Party, and the Israeli 
leader was expected to court ultranationalists opposed to a peace deal with 
the Palestinians.

The political instability in Israel bodes ill for a new U.S.-backed peace 
plan, and Palestinian officials say they fear a government stacked with 
hardliners will adopt even tougher policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

After Labor quit Wednesday because of a dispute over funding for Jewish 
settlements in the 2003 state budget, Sharon was left with a minority 
government that controls only 55 seats in the 120-member parliament.

The opposition is pressing for new elections, but it may not muster 61 
legislators needed to topple the government, but it will become increasingly 
difficult for Sharon to govern.

Despite the unstable situation, Sharon was quoted as saying Thursday he would 
not seek elections ahead of the scheduled date -- November 2003.

``I plan to make every effort to establish an alternative government,'' 
Sharon told Yediot. ``I have no intention of ... initiating early elections.''

Sharon offered the defense portfolio vacated by Labor leader Binyamin 
Ben-Eliezer to former army chief Shaul Mofaz, who led large-scale offensives 
against Palestinian militants and advocated the ouster of Palestinian leader 
Yasser Arafat. Mofaz left the army in July when his four-year term was up.

A Sharon aide, Arnon Perlman, said Thursday that Mofaz has accepted the 
defense post.

Arafat suggested the Mofaz appointment would lead to tougher Israeli measures 
against the Palestinians.

``Mofaz from one side, (current army chief Moshe) Yaalon from the other side, 
Sharon above them ... imagine how the area is going to be,'' Arafat said in 
an interview with Associated Press Television News.

``The Israeli people must think of these changes seriously,'' he said.

The main target of Sharon's coalition building efforts is National 
Union-Israel Beitenu, a far-right grouping of seven legislators who oppose 
any negotiations with the Palestinians and advocate settlement expansion in 
the West Bank and Gaza.

The Israeli daily Maariv reported that Sharon has offered the faction's 
leader, Avigdor Lieberman, the post of foreign or finance minister. However, 
the report could not be confirmed independently. A legislator from the 
National Union, Benny Elon, said he was unaware of such an offer.

Lieberman is a close ally of Sharon's key rival for Likud Party leadership, 
former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and appeared in no hurry to join 
the government. Lieberman was quoted as saying before the breakup of the 
coalition that he prefers early elections.

Elon said the final decision was up to the faction. Elon said National Union 
legislators would meet with Sharon envoys in the coming days. He said Sharon 
should be urged to adopt a more hard-line government platform, which he said 
would be more in line with the prime minister's right-wing convictions.

``We want to see if he (Sharon) is willing now to use this year to have a 
clear policy,'' including harsher measures in the West Bank, Elon told AP.

Sharon asked outgoing Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to stay on, said Labor 
legislator Colette Avital. But Peres advisers said he would not break with 
his party. Yediot said Sharon wanted Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to 
serve as a special envoy and represent Israel abroad.

Serving as a counterweight to Sharon's hawkish views, Peres had helped 
deflect some of the international criticism of Israel.

Sharon's next test will come Monday when parliament votes on a number of 
no-confidence motions. In the same session, the Mofaz appointment reportedly 
will be submitted for approval.

Ben-Eliezer, meanwhile, came under intense criticism Thursday for having 
broken up the 20-month-old government over Labor's demand that $145 million 
in allocations to Jewish settlements be cut from the 2003 budget.

Critics said Ben-Eliezer's main motive was to improve his standing in his 
party ahead of primaries on Nov. 19. He trails two more dovish challengers, 
Amram Mitzna and Haim Ramon, and leaving the government over a settlement 
dispute could bring him votes.

Addressing parliament after his resignation, Ben-Eliezer laid out his 
platform for opposing Sharon, saying the government had no plans for peace 
with the Palestinians and -- with the economy badly hurt by the two years of 
fighting -- had abandoned Israeli's poor.

``Sharon's national unity government fell apart because he preferred the 
settlements to the development towns, the settlements to the students, the 
settlements to the hungry,'' Ben-Eliezer said Thursday.

Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Israel's government has not been a 
partner for peace, even with Labor in it, and that a narrow coalition would 
even be worse.

``The behavior of such a government will reflect negatively on the Middle 
East, and the United States should also be worried about dealing with a 
right-wing government in Israel because it is going to endanger the American 
interests in the region,'' Abu Rdeneh said.

The upheaval spells trouble for U.S. efforts to win support for a three-phase 
peace plan envisioning a provisional Palestinian state by 2003. Elections 
would mean a delay of many months, and Sharon's far-right partners in a 
narrow coalition likely would object to many of that plan's provisions, such 
as a settlement freeze and a significant Israeli troop pullback.