Binyamin Netanyahu has secured a deal that will put him next in line to succeed Ariel Sharon, although he seems to be heading for defeat in his latest struggle to become prime minister.
Israel’s foreign minister has manoeuvred the Likud convention into agreeing that the runner up in the party’s leadership election next week will automatically command its number two spot in parliament after January’s general election.
If Mr Sharon fails to complete his next term in office, Mr Netanyahu would head Likud in parliament and be highly likely to become prime minister.
However, Mr Sharon’s aides were making it clear last night that while they accepted the arrangement foisted on them by Mr Netanyahu’s politicking, it did not guarantee him a leading role in the next government if, as expected, Mr Sharon is returned to office.
Mr Netanyahu attempted to rally support in Likud with a repeat of his promise that if he becomes prime minister he will expel Yasser Arafat from the West Bank. The speech came in the wake the murders by a Palestinian gunman of five Israelis, including two small children, on a kibbutz on Sunday night.
Mr Sharon instead sent in tanks.
The Israeli army locked down Nablus yesterday after moving into the town using dozens of tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopters backed by hundreds of soldiers.
The government said the incursion was planned last month and was not a direct response to Sunday’s attack. The Palestinians portrayed the military’s actions as collective punishment.
Nablus residents said there was some fighting, although it was not as intense as six months ago when the Israelis launched their clampdown across the West Bank. Yesterday, the army placed the entire town under curfew and then focused on the Balata refugee camp and Nablus old city.
No deaths were reported.
Mr Arafat called the raid on Nablus a war crime and responded to the call to expel him. ”Netanyahu has to remember that I am Yasser Arafat and that this is my land and the land of my grand-grand-grand-grand-grandfathers,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002