London Times report on Likud coalition

For those of you who don't regularly read the London Times... you really should. It's fairly centrist, has broad coverage of international news, and has some of the best writers on earth. It's my favorite news source. You might think it would be overly British... but since the focus is very international, you hardly notice at times... especially during times of important diplomatic maneuvering right now. Much better than CNN.com or nytimes.com, in my opinion. Here's a factual article about the coalition Sharon's crafted in Israel.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-589012,00.html

Labour refuses to stabilise Sharon's shaky coalition
From Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem



ISRAEL seems to be heading for an uncertain period of right-wing government after the main opposition Labour Party called off talks about joining Ariel Sharon’s coalition.

Labour’s decision was announced yesterday after Mr Sharon’s Likud Party signed a coalition agreement with the National Religious Party (NRP), whose right-wing pro-settler stance is at odds with that of Amram Mitzna, Labour’s new left-wing leader.

With many within Likud implacably opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, the decision jeopardises the prospects of diplomatic progress and the implementation of President Bush’s vision of such a state by 2005.

“The contacts are over,” On Levy, a spokesman for Mr Mitzna, said. Pressed on whether this meant that Labour would now not join the Government, Mr Levy said: “Correct.”

Originally Mr Sharon had wanted to form a “national unity” coalition with Labour. However, he is likely to have to rely on the NRP and the centrist secular party Shinui. Together they would give him just 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, a precarious and unstable majority of just one.

Officials said yesterday that the NRP would be given the Housing Ministry, which oversees building of the settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. These are viewed as a provocation by Palestinians on land they claim for their own state.

Mr Sharon has proclaimed himself ready to make “painful compromises” over the occupied territories to bring about peace. But Labour leaders have repeatedly said that they are unconvinced that his public comments are matched by serious intent.

Mr Mitzna, who as a senior army officer 20 years ago threatened to resign in protest at Mr Sharon’s Lebanon campaign, has held a series of meetings with his old adversary. During the last meeting, Israeli newspapers reported, he demanded that Mr Sharon sign a written declaration of intent, committing himself to a Palestinian state, a timetable for its creation and the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Mr Sharon refused.

As the political deadlock continued, violence surged again in Gaza, where six Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in street battles. The clashes came after two dozen Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun and demolished houses in an attempt to stop Palestinian militant groups firing rockets into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot.

Simultaneously, large numbers of Israeli troops have launched an operation in Nablus’s old casbah area, moving from house to house through the narrow streets searching for caches of arms and ammunition.

As the fighting continued Likud’s two potential coalition partners reached compromises on their secular/religious differences. Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, the Shinui leader, has met Effie Eitam, the NRP leader, several times and agreed to Shinui’s demands that ultraOrthodox men lose their exemption from military service, that non-Jews be allowed to marry in civil ceremonies and that the Religious Affairs Ministry be abolished. In return Shinui is said to have dropped its demand that public transport run on the Sabbath.