Israel’s Likud Party Quits Talks With Barak

Israel’s largest right-wing party Monday abruptly quit negotiations to join the government of Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak, who instead appeared ready to enlist a controversial ultra-Orthodox faction.

With this latest round of political maneuvering, Barak’s government is at last coming into focus.

The final configuration will be decided soon, setting the stage for Barak to be sworn in as prime minister next week and putting an end to a transitional limbo that has endured since Barak’s election more than a month and a half ago.

Barak has struggled to forge a ruling coalition with a safe majority in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament. Several small parties have signed up in recent days, but the two largest blocs--the right-wing Likud Party of defeated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party--have been playing hard to get.

On Monday, Likud announced that it will not join the government after its acting leader, Netanyahu’s hawkish foreign minister, Ariel Sharon, stormed out of a meeting with Barak.

Billed as “decisive,” the meeting lasted barely five minutes.

“I regret to say that the partnership we were offered was not true partnership,” Sharon told reporters.

Sharon said Barak refused to accept some of Likud’s more hard-line positions on security issues. Likud insists that Israel not withdraw from the Golan Heights, and also wanted veto power over Barak’s peacemaking decisions.

With Likud on the outs, and barring last-minute changes, the emerging government is seen as one that will generally support Barak in his efforts to reach peace agreements with Israel’s Arab foes. Barak has said he wants to end Israel’s 21-year occupation of southern Lebanon within a year. He is also willing to negotiate with Syria over returning the Golan Heights.

But the new government also will be a fractious coalition of at least six parties with very different, sometimes competing, agendas.

How it will pronounce itself on domestic issues--especially those involving the tug of war between secular and Orthodox Israelis--remains unpredictable.

As Likud withdrew from coalition talks, it became clear that Barak was ready to open his government to Shas, a fundamentalist party that represents Sephardic Jews.

Likud and Shas were the two largest blocs that Barak had been unable to bring into his government. Both hold opinions deeply opposed to Barak’s--Likud on defense policy and Shas on the role of religion in Israeli life.

There was widespread opposition among Barak’s closest supporters to the inclusion of Shas and Likud. While the incoming prime minister probably could form a majority without either party, he has said he wants as broad a coalition as possible to lend credibility to his decisions.

Shas has proved itself a tough negotiator until now and may yet balk if Barak’s offer is not attractive enough. When a party joins the government, it is awarded control of one or more ministries, depending on the party’s size.

Shas politicians were holding overnight talks with Barak to work on details, and the party’s council of rabbis was to announce a final arrangement later today. But it seemed all but certain that Shas would join.

“There are only small things to work on now,” Shas Knesset member David Tal said late Monday.

Barak had refused to deal with Shas because its charismatic and powerful leader, Aryeh Deri, was convicted of bribery and corruption in March. But Barak apparently now believes that Deri, who resigned from the party leadership, is sufficiently sidelined.

Moreover, Barak needs the Shas discipline: Its Knesset members will always vote as their leaders tell them, and in the past Shas has proved amenable to making peace with the Palestinians and the Arabs.

A risk is that the left-wing Meretz Party, one of Barak’s natural allies, has threatened to boycott a government that includes Shas. Meretz was awarded the coveted Education Ministry on Sunday, however, and that may be enough to keep the party on board.

While some Barak supporters shuddered at Shas, others were even more alarmed at including Likud, which they blame for stalling peace talks.

The question for Barak was whether Likud posed more of a danger to him from within the government or from outside.