Israeli Lawmakers OK a Call for New Elections

With his ability to negotiate a Middle East peace deal hanging in the balance, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suffered a double blow Wednesday: His foreign minister quit, and the parliament approved by a large majority a call for new elections.

Israeli commentators called it the worst day of Barak’s tumultuous 13 months in office. Although his government was already reeling from a long string of devastating setbacks, Wednesday’s developments showed the opposition finally gaining sufficient strength to oust him.

Foreign Minister David Levy made good on his threat to resign in protest of Barak’s handling of last month’s Camp David summit. Levy opposed far-reaching concessions that Barak was prepared to make to the Palestinians, and he was also angry at being left out of the negotiating loop by the prime minister.

Volatile and flamboyant, Levy similarly staged a dramatic walkout from then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in January 1998, plunging that unsteady coalition into crisis and pushing Netanyahu deeper under the influence of small, right-wing parties.

This time, however, Levy’s resignation does not have a great impact on the government. He had already been sidelined by Barak, and the premier had already lost his majority in the parliament. Levy is the seventh Cabinet minister out of a onetime total of 23 to quit in the last month.

Levy’s departure does underscore Barak’s deepening political isolation and the complexities that the prime minister will face as he negotiates a peace deal and then attempts to win approval for it.

Levy, a Sephardic Jew of Moroccan origin, is considered a valuable member of coalition governments because of the votes he can bring.

Shortly after he announced that he was quitting, Levy joined the opposition to Barak in parliament to vote in favor of five bills to dissolve the body and hold early elections. The legislation still has to pass two more rounds of voting in parliament, but that can’t happen until November because the summer recess starts today.

Even though the vote was preliminary, it signaled the overriding sentiment here that holding elections far ahead of schedule for prime minister and parliament is all but inevitable.

With that sword of Damocles hanging over him, Barak is under increasing pressure to finish negotiations with the Palestinians during the three-month parliamentary recess or face the prospect that reaching agreement will not be possible.

“Barak does not have a government, he does not have a majority in the Knesset [parliament], and I think he does not have a majority in the nation,” said Ariel Sharon, head of the right-wing Likud Party, the largest opposition bloc.

The call for early elections passed, 61 to 51, meaning that the opposition was able to put together an absolute majority in the 120-member Knesset. That is the margin needed to oust Barak outright in a no-confidence motion and reflects the right’s growing strength in parliament.

Barak played down the significance of the vote. He said he was confident that he could consolidate his power and tackle what he called the most fateful challenges in the nation’s 52-year history.

“I don’t think that elections are the solutions for the problems of the State of Israel,” Barak said.

“In a few weeks, the dust will settle, the Knesset will be on vacation, Knesset members will breathe a little fresh air abroad, or they will go to meet with the voters. I am sure that both from the reaction they get abroad and from the voters they will meet during the summer break, they will understand that this government is doing the right thing for Israel.”

Barak invoked the name of his mentor, slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, noting that Rabin accomplished historic feats, such as the landmark Oslo peace accords, with a minority government that relied heavily on votes from Arab Knesset members.

It was a curious reference that represented a reversal for Barak. Since his landslide election in May 1999, he has insisted on a broad coalition that could pass his ambitious agenda with an ample “Jewish majority.” Forming that coalition was in many ways his proudest achievement.

But that majority is gone. Barak insists that once he takes his plans to the people, either through a referendum or elections, he will be vindicated.

Israel and the Palestinians have set Sept. 13 as a deadline for drafting a treaty that would resolve the most contentious issues dividing them. They made progress at the Camp David summit in Maryland, but the fate of Jerusalem ultimately forced the talks’ collapse.

Barak’s willingness to allow a degree of power-sharing with the Palestinians in Jerusalem--ultimately rejected as insufficient by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat--was what most infuriated the right and Levy.

“For the first time, on the issue of Jerusalem, we were prepared to divide Jerusalem, and even at this moment there is no way to back away from this promise,” Levy said at a news conference where he announced his resignation. “I am very, very afraid for the future.”

Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said he was concerned about Levy’s resignation. He said Barak’s domestic political predicament underscores the urgency of peace talks.

“Barak tried to ally himself with every shade of political opinion--the religious, the secular, the right, the left . . . this doesn’t work,” Shaath said, speaking in the Gaza Strip. “Mr. Barak has to make up his mind, go through with the peace process and conclude it, then go to the Israeli people. That is where he will find his support.”

Yaron Dekel, a prominent political commentator, noted that the summer Knesset session ended the same way it did two years ago, when Netanyahu was still prime minister, with the preliminary approval of a bill calling for early elections. Netanyahu found himself out of a job months later.

“This may be the beginning of the government’s fall,” Dekel said.