Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was trying on Tuesday to rally support for a reshaped coalition to implement his planned pull-out from Gaza, where two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in a new wave of violence.
The right-wing Likud’s central committee meets on Thursday when it will decide whether to reverse an earlier vote against the centre-left Labour party from joining a new, broad-based coalition.
While enjoying high public approval ratings, Sharon is unable to rely on the loyalty of his party members. Apart from the central committee’s vote in August against an invitation to the Cabinet table for Labour, his Gaza plan was also rejected in a referendum of members in May.
Sharon has seen his coalition slowly crumble in the past six months and Likud is now the only party left in the government after five ministers from the secular Shinui faction were sacked last week for voting against the Budget.
With the theoretical support of just 40 out of the 120 members of the Knesset, Sharon has essentially no option to either bring Labour into the government or call early elections that could derail his whole Gaza plan.
Election would be ‘mistake’
Sharon again underlined his opposition to elections in a speech to business leaders on Monday night, adding that he is prepared to go to the country if there is no other option.
”Twice in the last four years we have had elections, I have run for election, and twice in the last four years we have won the unprecedented trust of the Israeli public,” he said.
”However, I think it would be a mistake to drag the Israeli public into an unnecessary election at this time. It is a mistake which will incur a heavy cost.
”Can anyone see the possibility of leaving Gaza, something which I feel is essential, during elections? Anyone see something like this?”
A source close to the premier said his biggest fear is if large numbers of the 3 000-strong central committee steer clear of Thursday’s meeting in Tel Aviv and thus hand the initiative to his more committed opponents.
”If the turnout is low, the prime minister risks being beaten,” the source said. ”In every meeting and on every occasion he is explaining that if the convention vetoes his invitation for Labour, there will be no choice but early elections.”
Bitter pill
Sharon is trying to help persuade Likud members to swallow the bitter pill of Labour in the government by making clear that he also intends to bring the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism faction into the fold.
Shinui’s vote against the Budget was triggered by Sharon’s decision to channel funds into the pet projects of the religious parties.
Supporters of the 8 000 settlers who are set to be uprooted from their homes in Gaza are continuing their fight against the withdrawal and are planning to form a 180km-long convoy of cars, which will link the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza with the northern West Bank on Thursday.
Bloodshed continues
The prospect of a pull-out from Gaza has not put an end to bloodshed there. Sharon is determined not to be seen as retreating from the territory under fire while hardline Palestinian groups want to claim the credit for the pull-out.
Two Palestinians, including a member of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, were killed in separate air strikes by an unmanned Israeli spy plane in Gaza City on Tuesday, according to Palestinian medical and security sources.
Ten other people were also injured, including at least four schoolchildren, by Israeli tank and gunfire during an incursion in the same area.
An Israeli soldier was also killed when a device exploded during a patrol close to the Karni border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
The latest deaths brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the intifada to 4 599, including 3 562 Palestinians and 963 Israelis. — Sapa-AFP