Israeli Parliament OKs Bill for Early Elections

In the most serious threat yet to his 11-month-old government, Prime Minister Ehud Barak suffered an embarrassing defeat Wednesday when Israel’s rebellious parliament gave preliminary approval to a call for early elections.

The move plunges the government into a sticky crisis and undermines the Israeli leader precisely as he faces a potentially historic crossroads in making peace with the last of Israel’s Arab enemies.

While the vote does not portend an end to Barak’s rule, it does underscore the political weaknesses that have battered his government from the start. Much of Barak’s own coalition--three of its six political parties--deserted him in Wednesday’s vote. The coalition almost certainly will not survive in its current configuration.

The motivations of Barak’s opponents ranged from demands for a bigger cut of the budget to outrage over reported concessions offered the Palestinians in the interest of securing a final peace treaty.

The bill to dissolve the parliament, or Knesset, and hold early elections now returns to a legislative committee and has to weather three additional votes before it takes effect. That gives all factions here plenty of time to make deals, maneuver and avoid utter collapse.

Appearing on Israeli television Wednesday night, a defiant Barak dismissed the idea of new elections. He said Cabinet ministers who had voted against him were, in effect, fired. And he argued that “the people” who elected him in a landslide last year “are above the Knesset” and “will have the last word.”

“My mandate comes directly from the people,” Barak said, “and what occurred in the Knesset will not prevent me from concluding an agreement with the Palestinians and, if possible, with Syria.”

But the message contained in Wednesday’s revolt was clear.

“We have sent the signal, and the ball is now in the court of the prime minister,” said Health Minister Shlomo Benizri, who voted against Barak. “If he wants to move for elections, we will respect his call, and if he wants to solve the crisis, we welcome this as well. The vote was largely one of protest.”

Benizri’s ultra-Orthodox Shas Party was the biggest defector from the Barak camp. Its bearded, kippa-wearing members were smiling like Cheshire cats and slapping each other’s backs in the seats of the Knesset plenum after what they clearly saw as their victory.

Shas--with 17 seats in the Knesset, the largest coalition partner of Barak’s Labor Party--is demanding millions of dollars for its debt-ridden parallel school system. Barak has indulged Shas because of its votes, but this week broke off negotiations. That triggered the current crisis.

Avigdor Lieberman, a burly right-wing legislator from a tiny party that holds all of four seats in the 120-member Knesset, engineered Wednesday’s attempt to topple Barak, and he was being accorded a hero’s congratulations after the lopsided 61-48 vote.

Barak loyalists said they were confident that the bill approved Wednesday will be defeated in its later hearings.

Typical of Israel’s roller-coaster politics, the setback for Barak came just days after he was being heralded here for ending Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon and finally bringing troops home from an unpopular war. And on Tuesday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had given a fresh push to the Middle East peace process with the announcement of renewed talks between Israel and the Palestinians near Washington starting next week.

But by Wednesday evening, Israeli commentators were already calculating that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and other Arab leaders, sensing Barak’s sudden vulnerability, will toughen their positions and make agreement all the more elusive.

At the very least, the crisis will distract Barak in the final, crucial three months before a self-imposed deadline for a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.

Barak swept into office in July after a decisive victory over the incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud Party. A highly decorated career army officer with a stubborn vision of how to govern, Barak forged a broad coalition with a large parliamentary majority that he hoped would give him ample support as he asked Israelis to make painful territorial concessions to the Palestinians and Syrians in the interest of peace.

But the broad coalition was also a disparate bunch, with members ranging from ultra-Orthodox right-wing Jews to staunchly secular leftists. It was in some ways doomed to wallow in endless bickering.

In his Wednesday night television interview, Barak indicated that he would either dump the ministers and parties that betrayed him or allow them to remain in his government but with new rules of allegiance. He can turn to other parties in the Knesset, such as the secular Shinui, to build a coalition that would have a narrow but united majority.

He also may attempt again to compromise with Shas.

“In a few days, there will be a government either in a different composition or in a similar one, but it will act in a much more cohesive manner,” Barak said.

Others recalled that it was a similar scenario of Knesset wrangling and anger over the peace process that eventually toppled Netanyahu’s government and advanced the elections that brought Barak to power.

“It’s the beginning of the end for the government,” Likud leader Ariel Sharon said Wednesday, “but the road is long.”

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Special correspondent Sobelman reported from Jerusalem and staff writer Wilkinson from Beirut.