Amid Israeli-Arab Clashes, Political Foes Assail Netanyahu

As violence flared anew in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struggled to resolve his coalition troubles, and opposition lawmakers accused the government of dangerous inattention to the escalating peace crisis.

“A war is being waged in Hebron, and they’re bickering,” fumed legislator Uzi Baram of the opposition Labor Party, referring to days of clashes in the West Bank city. “It’s a mockery.”

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a young Palestinian demonstrator after fighting erupted in a dispute between Jewish settlers and Arab residents over farmland near an Israeli settlement.

More than 30 other Palestinians were injured in renewed clashes in volatile Hebron, the only Palestinian city where Jewish settlers live amid the Arab population and the scene of frequent confrontations in recent weeks.

Israeli troops, facing a barrage of Molotov cocktails and homemade bombs in the city, as well as the usual stones, reportedly used live ammunition against rioters for the first time in weeks, forcing them back from Jewish enclaves in a densely populated section known as the casbah.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army did not confirm or deny that live bullets were fired Wednesday, stating that army regulations allow troops to use the upgraded ammunition if they believe their lives are in danger.

One soldier was severely wounded in Hebron this week when a pipe bomb hurled by demonstrators landed at his feet.

Palestinians say they are protesting the distribution of a cartoon in Hebron’s Arab areas over the weekend that depicted Islam’s prophet Muhammad as a pig. Israeli officials, who have condemned the drawing, say they believe the Palestinian Authority has organized the rioting.

*

As the violence erupted, Netanyahu held an inconclusive meeting in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister David Levy, who has threatened to quit the government because of Netanyahu’s abrasive management style and failure to consult with him.

After the meeting, Levy said, as he had since Monday, that he had yet to decide whether to stay in the government. If Levy, the leader of the Gesher Party, withdrew his five-member faction from the coalition, Netanyahu would hold a shaky majority of 61 in the 120-member parliament.

The threat to step down was triggered by the disclosure last weekend that Ariel Sharon, Israel’s hard-line minister of national infrastructure, had met secretly with a senior Palestinian official. Levy said he did not object to the meeting but, as the one appointed to lead the talks with the Palestinians, was upset to learn of the session from Israeli television.

The reports of the meeting, which both sides said was relatively short on substance, were leaked in the midst of a Cabinet power struggle over Sharon’s demand that he be named finance minister and also join the prime minister’s “kitchen Cabinet” that plans strategy for negotiating with the Palestinians.

On Wednesday, however, Levy said he wants Netanyahu to abolish the inner Cabinet, creating a dilemma for the prime minister and further delaying Netanyahu’s announcement of a whole chain of Cabinet appointments. The government has been without a finance minister for more than two weeks.

With the government paralyzed, the opposition took aim Wednesday, accusing Netanyahu and Levy of heedlessly neglecting the peace process while Gaza and the West Bank erupted in rioting.

“In Hebron, there is a war, and here they are . . . stroking their egos,” said Yossi Sarid, the leader of the far-left Meretz Party.

But Netanyahu and aides vigorously defended themselves, saying the government was actively engaged in trying to calm the violence. The renewed clashes, they charged, were organized by the Palestinian Authority to put pressure on Israel.

At the same time, though, a senior Israeli official dropped broad hints that recent contacts between Israel and the Palestinians may soon pave the way back to the bargaining table.

Political contacts have been all but frozen since mid-March amid Palestinian anger over Israel’s decision to build a new Jewish housing project in East Jerusalem.

The official said that with the help of Egypt and the United States, the two sides may soon resume talks on implementing several leftover issues from their interim peace agreement.

Saida Hamad and Fayed Abu Shammalah of The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau contributed to this report from Ramallah in the West Bank and Gaza City, respectively.