Sharon Moves to Bolster Ruling Coalition; Violence Continues

With public faith in his ability to restore peace plummeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon moved Sunday to shore up and expand his already top-heavy government, while his army bombarded Palestinian police posts three times in 24 hours.

Palestinians said two people, including a 14-year-old boy throwing stones and a man skirting a roadblock to buy books, were shot dead by Israeli troops. The Israeli rocket attacks in the Gaza Strip were launched in response to Palestinian mortar fire on Jewish settlements, the army said.

And early today, a Palestinian militant and two of his children, ages 5 and 7, were killed in a large explosion in his house in the southern Gaza Strip, in what Palestinians said was an Israeli missile attack. The man, Samir abu Zaid, was an activist in the so-called Popular Resistance Committees, which have spearheaded much of the intifada. The Israeli army, however, denied involvement and said the house was hit by a Palestinian-fired mortar gone astray during a protracted battle.

Overnight, repeating a frequent tactic, Israeli forces entered Palestinian-controlled Hebron and demolished a Palestinian security post after Palestinian gunmen opened fire, Israel Radio reported.

Sharon, meanwhile, told an audience in northern Israel on Sunday night that the army had hit upon a successful formula for fighting the Palestinians, an undercover war he described as “commando actions against terror.”

The latest violence came as Foreign Minister Shimon Peres intimated that he will soon meet with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in a desperate bid to enact a new cease-fire. But Palestinian officials publicly scoffed at Peres, saying there is nothing to talk about while Israel continues to occupy Palestinian offices in an Arab part of East Jerusalem.

In Israeli domestic politics, meanwhile, the tiny Center Party voted unanimously Sunday to join Sharon’s coalition government, and the deal was to be finalized today. Led by respected conservative politician Dan Meridor, the Center faction offers Sharon protection against the possible desertion of other members of his coalition--a threat aired more and more as both right-wing and left-wing components complain bitterly about the prime minister’s handling of the Palestinian uprising.

The entry of the Center Party also gives a boost to calls that Israel separate unilaterally from Palestinian areas--an idea that is swiftly gaining momentum in the face of relentless bloodshed and what many here see as diplomatic paralysis.

Building a fence, literally, between Israeli and Palestinian territory (the borders of which remain in dispute) is seen as unrealistic by many analysts, but a growing number of politicians regard it as the only way to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinian terrorist attacks.

As the Israeli newspaper Maariv put it in an editorial Sunday: “The facts speak for themselves: There are nearly no instances of suicide bombers, Palestinian guerrillas or weapons infiltrating through the border fences in Gaza”--the only place where a nearly hermetic seal exists.

Meridor said Sunday that he supports “separation,” though he said he would prefer it as part of an agreement with the Palestinians--which for now is a remote possibility.

Meridor adds a degree of credibility to Sharon’s team. He was one of the so-called princes of the right-wing Likud Party, sons of the party’s founders who were supposed to lead it to greatness. In a falling out with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, Meridor left Likud to help form the Center Party in late 1998.

The Center Party has been an odd mix, populated by former army generals and dedicated doves. But it never got very far, and earlier this year its former leader, retired Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, was convicted in a sexual harassment case.

The addition of the Center Party enhances the Sharon government’s status as the largest in Israeli history, with 28 ministers and 40 deputy ministers. The prime minister is in no danger of losing his overwhelming majority in the Knesset, or parliament, in contrast to previous regimes, whose survival often teetered precariously.

Sharon, however, needs to guard against an already brewing challenge from Netanyahu, who is spoiling for a comeback.

Bringing Meridor into the government heads off Netanyahu, at least for now, and also will enable Sharon to weather the blow if Peres’ center-left Labor Party ever makes good on its threats to quit the coalition (or if Sharon tires of putting up with Peres and Labor, whose policies differ from his in stark ways).

Sharon must also be worried about polls last week that showed a dramatic drop in public confidence in his leadership. His popularity remained high by the standards of recent prime ministers--though that too had fallen 10 points, from a 59% to a 49% approval rating.

But 70% of those polled by the Gallup Organization said they no longer believe that Sharon will be able to end “violence and terrorism on the part of the Palestinians.” Only 41% were similarly skeptical when polled several weeks earlier.

Sharon was elected by a landslide six months ago on the promise to restore security to Israelis, who felt besieged by violence that today has claimed nearly 700 lives, about three-quarters of them Palestinian.

The right thinks Sharon is not hitting the Palestinians with enough force, and the left thinks he’s gone too far in unleashing F-16 warplanes and in seizing Palestinian symbols of self-rule such as Orient House in East Jerusalem, moves that came in response to a suicide bombing of a Jerusalem pizzeria this month that killed 14 Israelis and one American in addition to the bomber.

Israeli tanks pounded a Palestinian police post Sunday afternoon, and a few hours later Israel’s American-made helicopter gunships rocketed another post. Both sites were in the Gaza Strip, and Israel said the strikes were launched in retaliation for mortar attacks on Jewish settlements.

On Saturday night, Israel fired two surface-to-surface missiles that destroyed a Palestinian police post in the Gazan town of Khan Yunis. That attack also was in response to Palestinian mortar fire, the Israelis said.

In other shootings, a 38-year-old Palestinian man was killed when he and others tried to skirt an Israeli army checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus. The army said it fired warning shots. The Palestinians said the man had been out buying schoolbooks at a time that Israeli forces have tightened closures of many West Bank towns.

And in the volatile Gazan town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, Israeli troops shot and killed a 14-year-old who was among a group throwing stones. The Israeli army said troops were returning gunfire. The children and teens earlier had been staging a mock trial of Sharon as an alleged war criminal.