Barak Coalition Partner Says It’s Bolting

Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s largest government partner announced Tuesday that it will quit the ruling coalition, a step that could cripple his administration as it fights a move for early elections and enters a crucial stretch of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party have made this threat before. They insisted Tuesday that they mean it this time--but also invited further talks with Barak. If they do leave the 11-month-old government, they will rob Barak of his majority in parliament and endanger his political survival.

With only three months to go before a final peace deal with the Palestinians is due, and with legislation to force early elections pending, Barak would have to put together a new coalition. He may be stuck with a narrow--and weak--government that relies on small or minority Arab parties to pass difficult legislation.

A showdown between Shas and Barak has been percolating for weeks.

The increasingly powerful party that represents Sephardic Jews--those of Middle Eastern and North African origin--is demanding millions of dollars from the government for its separate, religious school system. Shas also wants its string of pirate and sometimes confrontational radio stations legalized.

Barak seemed inclined to give in to some of the party’s demands, but only after it agreed to withdraw support for a bill that would force early elections and essentially topple his government. In an insurrectionist mood last week, Shas was instrumental in securing initial legislative approval for the bill.

Barak met with Shas Party leader Eli Yishai late Monday night at the prime minister’s residence in hopes of striking a deal. But there was no agreement.

On Tuesday, Shas’ rabbinical advisors, the Council of Torah Sages, led by spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, ordered the party to quit the government.

Shas holds 17 seats in the 120-member Knesset, or parliament, and heads the ministries of health, infrastructure, labor and religious affairs. Without Shas, Barak’s coalition has only 51 seats in the Knesset.

“For 11 months, Barak didn’t find the time to find a solution for our problems,” said Health Minister Shlomo Benizri, a member of Shas. “For now, this decision [to quit] is absolute. . . . I think we are going to elections very, very soon.”

Benizri helped to inflame tensions by accusing Barak’s education minister, Yossi Sarid, a staunchly secular leftist, of using “Nazi-style” propaganda against Shas. In this country formed by Holocaust survivors, such rhetoric is especially provocative.

While insisting that their decision was final, Shas officials seemed to leave wiggle room, saying they were not averse to hearing additional offers from Barak. The prime minister, meanwhile, called an urgent meeting of his loyal Cabinet ministers to determine what action he should take. They authorized him to take measures that would permit him to fire rebellious ministers in two weeks.

“The door is still open, if only by a narrow crack,” Barak said Tuesday night on Israeli television. “If they choose to continue being partners in the government, we are open to discussions. If they choose not to continue as partners, we will respect it.”

Shas said it will hand in its resignations at the next Cabinet meeting, which is scheduled for Sunday.

Most of Shas’ supporters are poor or working-class people who feel disenfranchised by the system. The party also has a history of corruption and scandal; its last chairman awaits a prison term for embezzling money.

Yet successive Israeli governments, right and left, have sought to include Shas because it can deliver votes. Shas also has been valued by some for its willingness to support peace deals with the nation’s Arab neighbors.

Some Israelis, however, have grown weary of the spectacle of Shas’ demands for money and threats to quit and the gyrations governments go through to appease the party members. There were suggestions that Shas was merely upping the ante and ultimately would stay in the Barak government because it could not afford to give up its budget and perks.

“Form a new government,” the respected daily Haaretz urged this week, “free of Shas’ extortions” that threaten “not only proper government--but Barak’s own stature as prime minister.”

“Here is Barak’s trap,” said the top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot. “There is no stable government without Shas--or with it.”

Senior officials of Barak’s Labor Party acknowledged Tuesday that a new government dependent on small parties would be difficult to control and might not last more than six months.

The opposition was already sharpening its knives.

“I see no other option except to change this failing government,” said Ariel Sharon, who chairs the right-wing Likud Party, the largest opposition bloc.