Israeli Premier-Elect’s Bid to Form Coalition Government Taking Shape

The pieces of a new Israeli government were finally starting to fall into place Sunday, nearly six weeks after Ehud Barak’s landslide election as prime minister stirred hopes of a more vigorous peace process in the Middle East.

Rather than seizing immediate momentum, Barak has used the time since his election to engage in torturous negotiations with disparate political parties in a bid to form a broad coalition government.

Barak’s goal is to attract parties representing 61 or more seats in the 120-seat, 15-party Knesset, or parliament. He has said he wants a 90-seat majority, but he has failed so far to reach agreement with the two biggest blocs: defeated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party and the Shas Party of ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Jews.

As of Sunday, he had found three takers. The left-wing Meretz Party was the latest to sign up, and its leader, Yossi Sarid, was awarded the coveted Education Ministry, a battleground for the ongoing struggle between secular and religious Israelis.

Barak will be sworn in as prime minister once he has put together a government. Legally, he has until July 8 to complete the task. In the meantime, Netanyahu continues to head a lame-duck government.

The coalition negotiations have provided high drama for an Israeli public addicted to politics and fascinated by the speculation-fueled ins and outs of who is being promised what and of how, in the end, this hodgepodge will be able to govern.

Among the disagreements: One party refuses to sit with ultra-Orthodox; some of the ultra-Orthodox refuse to sit with the most staunchly secular. One party wants a promise that Jewish settlements in the West Bank will be maintained; another demands that yeshiva students be drafted, while still another insists that they not be. And so forth.

The tight-lipped Barak repeatedly tantalizes both the politicians who trudge to and from marathon bargaining sessions with him and the journalists and commentators watching.

“A new direction is taken every two hours, a new coalition is on the horizon every two days, and a new government is formed at least once a week,” exasperated analyst Hemi Shalev wrote last week in the newspaper Maariv.

Barak’s approach has been that of a card shark who constantly and deliberately reshuffles the deck and who refuses to talk about his tricks. Those close to him say it is part of his cool, methodical and highly analytical way of solving problems.

In addition to Meretz, the two parties that have formally joined Barak and his Labor Party are Israel With Immigration, a faction of Russian immigrants led by former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky, and the National Religious Party made up of Zionist Orthodox Jews. Sharansky will become Interior Minister, a portfolio held until now by Shas and considered key because it controls, in addition to municipal budgets, the access immigrants have to housing and other benefits.

With these parties and several other small ones expected to sign up soon, Barak would have a 66-seat majority.

He is expected to make a final run at Shas, which has been bitterly angered by an offer of ministries with little control over money and jobs. The Shas head rabbi reportedly refused Barak’s phone calls over the weekend.

And the Likud--now run by Netanyahu’s hawkish foreign minister, Ariel Sharon--may yet be persuaded to join with a promise of the finance portfolio.

But the doling out of ministries to various parties, especially longtime rivals such as Likud, has left Barak’s own Labor Party feeling ignored and resentful. Veteran party leaders are increasingly speaking out against Barak’s tactics and warning that he will damage the party.

Shlomo Ben-Ami, a highly respected and popular Labor politician who had been mentioned as a possible foreign minister, did not conceal his anger Sunday at the likelihood that he will not be named to a key post.

“I will decide whether to take part in the government on the basis of the degree of influence and relevance I will have,” he said. “For me, politics is not an employment agency.”

Barak wants a large coalition as a way to have the votes in his pocket when he pursues peace with the Palestinians and Syria and other controversial policies. The risks, in addition to alienating his own party, are that he will have to manage an unruly team with numerous small parties that must be forever placated.

In the meantime, Israelis are eager for Barak to close a deal. The limbo period between the two governments is worrisome, particularly as tensions escalate on Israel’s border with Lebanon. The heaviest Israeli bombardment in more than three years killed nine Lebanese late last week, after shelling of northern Israeli communities by Islamic guerrillas left two people dead.

On Sunday, Israelis in the north burned tires and blocked roads to demand help from the government. Mayors of 13 northern towns came to Jerusalem to protest, first to the outgoing prime minister, then to his successor.