Sharon Plays Tough in Battle With Ultra-Orthodox Parties

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continued to play hardball Tuesday with two ultra-Orthodox parties a day after he fired their Cabinet ministers for helping to defeat the government’s economic austerity plan in parliament.

While speculation mounted that the infighting might lead to the government’s collapse and early elections, Sharon said he would not back down in his confrontation with Shas and United Torah Judaism. Both parties voted against the economic plan, saying it would hurt the poor.

The former general ordered his aides not to return telephone calls from leaders of either party. He vowed that negotiations with them would begin only after he puts his budget cuts before the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, again today. No changes will be made in the proposal before the vote, Sharon said.

“He’s playing chicken, and he wants to show them that he’s a good player,” said Gideon Doron, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University and a specialist on the Israeli political system.

Sharon’s tough stance diverted attention from what Israeli political analysts described as the debacle he suffered Monday night when he failed to win approval for his economic plan despite leading the broadest coalition government in Israeli history.

An infuriated Sharon withdrew to his offices at the Knesset after the plan lost by three votes. There he told his aides that “no one spits in my face,” Israeli television reported, and he fired off the letters of dismissal to four Shas ministers.

By Tuesday, as the Shas ministers huddled with their spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to map out a strategy, Sharon was winning praise for standing up to them. Ultra-Orthodox parties have caused the collapse of both left- and right-wing governments on several occasions, usually over budget allocations. Their ability to extract funding for religious schools and subsidies for ultra-Orthodox families is widely resented by many secular Israelis.

When the previous prime minister, Ehud Barak of the Labor Party, swept to power in 1999, tens of thousands of his supporters gathered at a rally in Tel Aviv to protest against Shas as he contemplated bringing the group into his coalition. Ultimately, Barak did turn to Shas to form his Cabinet. In his short and turbulent time in office, he gave in to their demands several times in hopes of holding his coalition together.

Sharon’s decision to fire the ministers, then, was seen as bold, especially after last week, when he stood up to his party’s central committee in defending an eventual Palestinian state. The panel nonetheless rejected the idea.

“For the second time in less than 10 days, Sharon made a dignified decision which does not necessarily dovetail with political considerations,” wrote the daily newspaper Maariv in its lead editorial Tuesday. “He sent a clear message to his Shas partners, who dared to undermine the economic plan which is essential to saving the economy.”

Pundits and pollsters said voters will be watching closely to see whether Sharon ultimately makes concessions to keep Shas in the government.

“If he stands firm, he should gain points with the public,” said pollster Rafi Smith.

Smith said Sharon’s decision in March to launch a massive military sweep through the West Bank, plus his confrontation May 12 with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before their Likud Party Central Committee over the question of Palestinian statehood, boosted his popularity.

In a telephone survey conducted by Smith’s firm Monday before the Knesset vote, Sharon received high marks from Israelis for leadership. Asked whether they preferred Sharon or Netanyahu as Likud’s next candidate for prime minister, “the general population prefers Sharon over Netanyahu by a margin of 55% to 22%,” Smith said. “It is one of the biggest margins our polls have given him over Netanyahu.”

That margin, Smith said, is likely to increase if Sharon faces down Shas or even decides to call elections. But if he opts for early elections, his support could melt away if there is a new surge of terrorist attacks or the economy’s downward trend spins out of control between the dissolution of the Knesset and the vote.

“The problem is that things are very fragile,” Smith said. “So early elections would be a risk.”

A second vote on the budget plan is expected to come just hours before the dismissals of the four ministers take effect tonight. A fifth Shas minister, who was not fired because he is not a Knesset member, resigned in solidarity. Sharon also dismissed three Shas and two United Torah Judaism deputy ministers.

If the ultra-Orthodox ministers abstain from the balloting on the economic plan rather than vote against it, Sharon is expected to rescind the dismissals and his coalition would remain intact, analysts said. But if they again vote no and quit the government, Sharon will be left with just 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

Sharon’s gamble is that Shas, the third-largest party in the Knesset, will relent rather than face early elections. Polls show it probably would lose five or more of the 17 seats it holds if elections were held in the next six months.

If Sharon jettisons the ultra- Orthodox parties, he probably will try to bring the anti-Orthodox Shinui Party, the ultranationalist National Union Party or both into the government. In a smaller coalition, the center-left Labor Party would gain leverage as the largest partner in a group including Labor, Likud and several smaller right-wing parties.