Sharon Pitches a Coalition With Labor

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned his conservative Likud Party on Thursday that forming a new ruling coalition with the left-leaning Labor Party was the only way to avoid the collapse of the government and early elections.

Sharon said he would try to form new partnerships with Labor and smaller religious parties to keep the government in power long enough to carry out his planned Gaza Strip withdrawal.

“There are two choices: a unity government or holding elections,” Sharon said. His comments, made to a gathering of news editors in Tel Aviv, were aired nationwide and appeared aimed at sending a message to his party.

Sharon’s minority government is in a highly delicate position: It controls just one-third of the Knesset, or parliament, after he dumped the Shinui Party over its refusal to support his proposed 2005 budget. Lawmakers soundly defeated the budget Wednesday.

Without Shinui’s support, Sharon faces the threat that a no-confidence motion could bring down his government.

Shinui’s ejection takes effect tonight, which would leave Sharon with 40 of 120 Knesset seats, all belonging to Likud. Two smaller parties, National Union and the National Religious Party, were dismissed from or left the coalition this year because of their opposition to the Gaza pullout, leaving the secular Shinui as Sharon’s surviving partner.

Labor Party leaders, who control 22 seats, appear eager to join the government to make sure Sharon carries out the planned withdrawal of settlers and troops from Gaza. However, the prime minister has run into opposition from hard-liners in his party, who don’t want to let Labor in.

“There is no other choice,” Sharon said. “I think that elections at this time are not what the state of Israel needs, they are not what Likud needs.”

Likud’s policymaking body, its Central Committee, handed Sharon a setback in August when it voted to head off coalition talks with Labor. Sharon may convene the Central Committee again as early as Thursday to reconsider.

Rebellious Likud members have openly defied the prime minister over his plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four others in the northern West Bank. They fear that Labor’s inclusion will add pressure to dismantle even more settlements in the West Bank.

But early elections also are risky for the party because it could lose seats. It is also unclear whether the candidate for prime minister would be Sharon or someone from the hard-line camp, such as Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his longtime rival.

Polls have shown little public support for elections now.

Sharon seems to stand a better chance of selling a unity government to Likud members if it also includes at least one of two ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas. He sought to win United Torah Judaism’s support by increasing subsidies for its projects by about $65 million, leading to the budget showdown with Shinui, which seeks greater separation between the government and religion.

Shas probably would be unacceptable to Labor because of the smaller party’s current opposition to the withdrawal plan. Shas’ spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has objected on grounds that the pullout was planned as a unilateral move and not through joint action with the Palestinians. But Sharon has talked recently of coordinating the withdrawal if a moderate new Palestinian leadership emerges.

For months, Israeli political commentators have predicted Sharon’s imminent downfall, only to see him survive through one political gambit after another. Some suggested that he created the latest crisis to force Likud into accepting a unity government.

“It will become clear whether this was the most brilliant political maneuver of recent years or a shot in his own foot that will spell the end of Sharon’s political career,” commentator Yossi Verter wrote in the daily Haaretz newspaper.

In his remarks Thursday, Sharon also said that Israel would not carry out strikes against Palestinians if militants refrained from attacks. However, he said Israel would hit first against threats of imminent attack.

The three-week period since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died has been relatively tranquil, though neither side has declared a formal cease-fire.

“If there is quiet, we too will most likely not respond,” Sharon said.

Israel has promised to take steps to smooth the way for elections for a new Palestinian Authority president Jan. 9.

Palestinian election officials said Thursday that 10 candidates qualified for the ballot, including Mahmoud Abbas, who replaced Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and imprisoned uprising leader Marwan Barghouti.

Abbas carried the endorsement of Fatah, the PLO’s dominant faction, and was the apparent front-runner until Wednesday, when Barghouti’s wife registered the jailed leader as a candidate just before the midnight filing deadline.

Barghouti is regarded as a leader of Fatah’s young guard, and his independent candidacy represents a threat to Abbas and the faction’s overall unity.

Fatah leaders denounced Barghouti’s decision to run.

The militant group Islamic Jihad announced Thursday that it would join fellow militants in Hamas in boycotting the vote.

Also Thursday, Rami Hamdallah, secretary-general of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said that so far, 1.3 million Palestinians -- 71% of those eligible -- had registered to vote.

*

Times special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Palestinians in the running

Ten candidates have qualified to contest the Palestinian Authority presidential elections, set for Jan. 9. They are:

Mahmoud Abbas, 69: interim Palestinian leader, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the nominee of the dominant Fatah faction.

Marwan Barghouti, 45: West Bank Fatah leader, serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for his role in three shooting attacks by militants. Israel has said it will not free him.

Abdel Sattar Qassem, 56: a dissident and anti-corruption campaigner once jailed by Yasser Arafat. Political scientist Qassem is a hard-liner toward Israel.

Mustafa Barghouti, 50: a physician and pro-democracy activist. He is distantly related to Marwan Barghouti.

Bassam Salhi, 44: leader of the Palestine People’s Party, a small faction with communist roots.

Taysser Khalid, 65: candidate of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant PLO faction.

Abdel Karim Shaber, 44: a lawyer from Gaza City. He identifies with Islamic causes but is not a member of either the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant group.

Saed Baraka, 49: a businessman and teacher of Arabic from the Gaza Strip. He once arrested by Israel and deported because of alleged links to Islamic Jihad.

Abdelhalim Ashkar, 43: a U.S. resident with a degree in business administration. His wife and three children are American citizens.

Hassan Khreisheh, 49: acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Khreisheh, a physician, has criticized the Palestinian Authority for corruption.

*

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times