Lawmakers Narrowly Back Sharon’s New Government

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon narrowly won parliamentary approval Monday for a new governing alliance with the left-leaning Labor Party and a small religious party, a coalition that is designed to ensure he can carry out his Gaza Strip withdrawal plan.

The new government brings Israel’s two most enduring political rivals -- Sharon, 76, of the Likud Party; and Shimon Peres, Labor’s 81-year-old leader -- together once again.

Labor has been part of ruling coalitions with Likud before, most recently when it joined Sharon’s government in 2001. But Labor quit the following year over public spending for Jewish settlements. Despite the party’s opposition to Sharon on bread-and-butter issues, Peres pushed to get it into the government again to make sure the Gaza pullout goes forward.

Sharon’s conservative Likud Party, a faction of which bitterly opposes the withdrawal, proved to be the prime minister’s biggest headache. The fate of the coalition, and Sharon’s grip on power, appeared in doubt after 13 Likud dissidents said they would vote against the proposed coalition.

In the end, opponents failed to muster a majority in the 120-member Knesset, or parliament, to block the alliance. Sharon raised the ante by declaring the decision a vote of confidence in his government, meaning a loss would have toppled him.

The vote, after more than three hours of debate, was 58 to 56 in favor of the coalition, to be made up of Likud, Labor and an Orthodox party known as United Torah Judaism. Six members abstained.

The new alliance ostensibly gives Sharon 66 Knesset votes, a majority that should help him move ahead with plans to abandon all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in a remote section of the West Bank. If rebellious Likud members abandon him, however, Sharon will need left-leaning opposition lawmakers to rescue him by sitting out no-confidence votes.

Sharon dismayed many in his party by reaching out to Labor, which holds liberal positions on social policies and is more dovish toward the Palestinians. The prime minister said an alliance was the only way to avoid early national elections, a process that could delay or derail the withdrawal plan.

Sharon added the smaller United Torah Judaism as a way to mollify hard-liners in his party. The prime minister may later seek to add a second Orthodox party, Shas.

Sharon expelled the centrist Shinui Party, his remaining coalition partner, last month during a showdown over the proposed 2005 budget. That pared Sharon’s base to the 40 Knesset seats held by Likud, leaving him vulnerable to being ousted.

He lost his majority last year after two pro-settler parties left over the withdrawal plan.

Among the harshest critics of the new alignment was the Shinui leader, former Justice Minister Tommy Lapid. Shinui is fiercely secular, and Lapid lashed out at Peres, the Labor chairman, for joining a coalition with a religious party rather than holding out for a secular coalition that would include Shinui.

“Labor resembles an old hag who bought herself a groom at an amazing price,” Lapid said during the debate.

Likud opponents of the withdrawal plan said the coalition jeopardized Jewish settlements and the party’s long-standing support for the settler movement.

“It’s our duty to oppose the establishment of a government which would endanger Israel’s future as well as the Likud’s future,” Knesset member Gilad Erdan told Israel Radio.

But Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, a Sharon ally, accused the rebellious Likud members of putting the party at risk. “They are creating a split which is threatening the Likud’s unity,” he said.

The pullout plan has angered settlers and their right-wing political allies, who once regarded Sharon as a patron of the settlement movement. Settler leaders have called for civil disobedience to block the evacuations, which are planned for this summer.

Some soldiers have said they would refuse orders to remove settlers. On Monday, Israeli military officials said they had dismissed six senior reserve officers who signed a letter last week threatening insubordination over the pullout.