Anti-Arab Bloc Quits Sharon’s Government

Two ultranationalist anti-Arab parties, vowing to fight any effort by the Bush administration to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, quit Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s broad-based government Monday.

The move in the Knesset, or parliament, by the seven-member National Union bloc comes as Sharon is under mounting pressure from the U.S. to try to end the conflict with the Palestinians. Critics on both the right and left have charged that his government is incapable of responding to diplomatic realities changed by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Although Sharon still has a comfortable majority in the 120-seat Knesset, some commentators here said Monday’s defections could signal the beginning of the end for his government if other right-wing ministers follow suit.

In a speech to the Knesset, Sharon acknowledged that his government had been harmed. He castigated the two-party National Union for resigning, saying it had handed a victory to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

“You have caused me great distress,” he said. “To Arafat, on the other hand, you have given great satisfaction. . . . You made his day.”

Seven months ago, the former general proudly unveiled the largest government in Israel’s history, formed to confront the Palestinian revolt that erupted in September 2000. As long as the government’s priority was security, the uneasy partnership among Sharon’s right-wing Likud Party, the center-left Labor Party and several ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties worked.

But the government has shown signs of stress since the U.S. began seeking the support of moderate Arab and Muslim states for its war on terrorism and those governments demanded that efforts also be made to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sharon Pulled Left and Right

Sharon has been dismayed by President Bush’s public praise for Arafat’s efforts to control Palestinian radicals. British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s warm reception of the Palestinian leader in London on Monday was taken here as further proof that the U.S. is preparing to launch a new peace initiative soon.

Ultranationalist parties and some Likud ministers have urged Sharon to reject any U.S. plan that might require Israeli concessions. But the Labor Party is pushing him to firmly align Israel with the U.S. war on terrorism by making overtures to the Palestinians.

The prime minister has seemed to be trying to please the right and the left in recent days. Even as he announced plans to pull troops and tanks out of Palestinian neighborhoods of the West Bank city of Hebron and handed security there to Palestinian authorities, Sharon reinstated the practice of killing Palestinian militants.

Israel has used special units and snipers to kill dozens of militants since the Palestinian revolt began--a policy that has been condemned by much of the international community. The government suspended the killings last month when the two sides agreed to a cease-fire.

But Sunday, an Israeli police sniper shot dead a leader of the militant Islamic movement Hamas in the West Bank town of Kalkilya. A second Hamas militant died Monday morning when a car blew up near his office in the West Bank city of Nablus. Ahmed Marshoud had been high on Israel’s most-wanted list as a suspected leader of the Palestinian revolt in the Nablus area. Palestinians blamed Israel for his death, and Israel Radio said Israel was responsible. The army had no immediate comment.

The killings did not keep the National Union from pulling out of the government. The defection leaves 76 Knesset members in the coalition, but the departure of two parties closely identified with the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip embarrassed Sharon, who has long championed the settlers. It leaves him vulnerable to attack by his arch political rival, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has positioned himself to Sharon’s right within the Likud Party.

Dismay Over Expected U.S. Initiative

The resignations also brought to the surface the tensions building over the anticipated unveiling of a U.S. peace plan.

Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi told a news conference that they had decided to lead their bloc out of the government to protest the army’s Hebron pullback and the easing of restrictions on Palestinians. But they made it clear that they are also worried about any Bush administration plan.

“While in the opposition, we’ll first and foremost seek to foil the American initiative,” Lieberman said.

He added that ultranationalist parties also will press the government to formally renounce the 1993 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians.

“We knew the national unity government was in fact a government of national paralysis, or a government which followed the policy of one partner while the other partner kept renouncing, giving in and paying the price,” Zeevi said.

He and Lieberman said they would return to the government only if dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres resigned or if the army returned to the Palestinian neighborhoods of Hebron it left.

Under Israeli law, their resignations take effect Wednesday. Sharon urged them to reconsider and warned that their departure could cause the government to fall.

“I ask you, my friends, what do you want?” Sharon said, addressing Lieberman and Zeevi in his speech. “A campaign against terror or an election campaign?”

Yossi Sarid, leader of the left-wing opposition, ridiculed the pair for saying the army’s pullback in Hebron was a moment of truth for Israel.

“What moment and what truth?” he asked in a Knesset speech. “Do you know what moment of truth is waiting for us around the corner, when we’ll have to evacuate many a hill, many mountains and many valleys and very many settlements, perhaps all of them? . . . That moment of truth is probably near. It will come when the American plan for a settlement between us and the Palestinians will be unveiled for the first time.”