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| Monday, 13 December 2004 |
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Sharon-Peres union set to save Israel's Gaza pullout plan TEL AVIV, Sunday (AFP) Shimon Peres was poised to lead his Labour party into Ariel Sharon's new coalition government in a move set to save the Israeli prime minister's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip by end-2005. The main opposition party's central committee voted almost unanimously to allow Labour to open talks on forming a national unity government with Sharon's right-wing Likud. Keen to taste power possibly one last time, Peres stressed the importance of joining the government in order to guarantee Sharon's planned evacuation from Gaza and four Jewish settlements in the West Bank. "If we enter the government, and if there is no disengagement (from Gaza), we will be free to quit it," he told the central committee debate in Tel Aviv. "We are establishing a structure for peace and this imperative must come above all other considerations," added the former Nobel peace prize winner. Sharon, with no parliamentary majority for six months, won approval from Likud's central committee to bring centre-left Labour and its 23 MPs into a new broad-based coalition. Labour's central committee also agreed to extend informal negotiations with Likud on entering the government that have been going on behind the scenes for several months. Two teams charged with negotiating Labour's sharing of ministerial portfolios were meeting late into the night. Party chairwoman Dalia Itzik had said Labour would strive to secure the education ministry, held by Likud's Limor Livnat, and the vacant national infrastructure and interior portfolios. They became free when Sharon ejected the last remaining member of his coalition government, the secular Shinui party after it voted against his 2005 state budget. Not expected to replace the key Likud-held defence, foreign affairs or finance ministries, army radio said the 81-year-old Peres may have to content himself with the nuclear energy committee and national security council. Sharon had invited Peres and the leaders of two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, to hold coalition talks. While Shas, opposed to the withdrawal from Gaza, is likely to stay outside the government, the five deputies of the UTJ are expected to come on board. After losing three coalition partners in little more than six months, Sharon can count on the support of only 40 of the 120 members of parliament. Usually seen as the ultimate champion of the settlers, Sharon has vowed to uproot the 8,000 Jewish residents of Gaza come what may, hoping to ease pressure for a comprehensive withdrawal from the West Bank, home to most of the 245,000 settlers. But the Palestinians are deeply suspicious of Sharon's intentions, fearing he will use the Gaza pullout to block progress on the wider peace process. Meanwhile, sources close to Marwan Barghuti said the jailed intifada leader could withdraw from the January 9 Palestinian election campaign within 48 hours. The possibility was discussed when Barghuti's wife Fadwa and Talab al-Sana, an Arab-Israeli member of parliament, visited him in prison, a source at the meeting said. Around 20 of those responsible for his electoral campaign, including Fadwa, met again Saturday ahead of a new meeting with Barghuti on Sunday or Monday, said his lawyers and Fatah officials. "Most of us are of the opinion that Marwan Barghuti maintain his candidature, but there have been other ideas put forward, and in any case it will be up to him to decide," said participant Zyad Abu Ein. His withdrawal would clear the way for Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Mahmud Abbas, the preferred candidate of the Fatah leadership, to replace the late Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. |
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