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Sharon sets deadline for Israel coalition decision
Last updated: 20 Feb 2001 12:46 GMT+00:00 (Reuters)
Reuters Photo
By Timothy Heritage
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's Likud party has given the centre-left Labour Party one week to join a broad-based coalition seen as Israel's best hope for Middle East peacemaking.
Rightwing Likud members said they would seek other partners to form a government if Labour leader Ehud Barak, the outgoing prime minister, did not by Monday overcome opposition in the party to joining forces to tackle almost five months of Palestinian protests against occupation.
In the latest violence, a Palestinian woman was arrested for stabbing and lightly wounding a Jewish settler in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Mourners in Nablus, also in the West Bank, chanted "revenge, revenge" at the funeral of Mahmoud al- Madani, a Palestinian militant who Israeli security sources said was killed for his alleged involvement in two car bombings inside Israel.
Voters deserted Barak in an election on February 6 because of his failure to quell the Palestinian uprising, but Sharon has turned to him in the hope of forming a government that can survive politically, tackle the unrest seek peace.
Ehud Olmert, a senior Likud member, said his party would give Labour one week to convene its central committee to decide whether to join a unity government and approve Barak's ambition to be defence minister in the joint coalition.
"I hope the Labour Party will approve the unity government and we can progress quickly. But if that will be delayed beyond Monday then another government will be formed," said Olmert, who is the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem.
Labour is expected to convene its 1,700-member central committee early next week. Sharon must present a government before a late March deadline or face new elections.
BARAK UNDER FIRE
If Labour refuses to close ranks with Likud, Sharon would be forced to join forces with ultra-nationalist and religious parties to survive in Israel's fragmented parliament. Such parties would be expected to obstruct peacemaking.
Some Labour members oppose Barak's decision to stay on as defence minister, a post he has held while prime minister.
Israeli media reported that Labour members were considering a compromise under which Barak would fulfil a pledge to resign from parliament and as Labour chief which he made after his election defeat but also serve in Sharon's government.
Barak told a Labour Party meeting on Monday that he hoped a joint government could be formed in days.
Likud secretary-general Uri Shani said the two sides had reached almost full agreement and accused Labour of "dealing in petty politics and not entering the unity government."
Sharon, a 72-year-old former army general, swept to power on promises to restore security for Israelis.
Arabs regard him as a war criminal for his role in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and some say they would find it harder to negotiate without Labour alongside him.
More than 400 people have been killed since the uprising began in late September after peace talks became deadlocked. Most of the dead were Palestinians but 61 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have also been killed.
HAMAS CAPTAIN SHOT DEAD
Shooting continued into Monday night, including between Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank village of Beit Jala and soldiers at the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the edge of Jerusalem. It was quiet in Gilo and Beit Jala on Tuesday.
Tensions rose in Nablus but no clashes erupted at Madani's funeral, attended by about 5,000 people. Many waved black and green Palestinian flags and dozens fired in the air.
Others carried banners urging Palestinians to join the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Hamas group of which Madani was a member, to avenge the killing. They demanded Palestinians who help Israel kill activists be executed.
Palestinian police said they had detained a number of Palestinians suspected of helping Israel track and kill Madani who was shot dead at a refugee camp near Nablus on Monday.
Palestinians accuse Israel of assassinating more than 20 Palestinian militants since the uprising began. Israel denies having a policy of assassination but its actions have been criticised by the European Union and the United States.
Underlining fears that violence could spread in the region, particularly after U.S. and British air strikes against Iraq last Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa urged Israel to start talking peace.
"Whatever the formation of the government will be, the policy of that government should be a peace policy and not a war policy, because many Israeli officials...have started to talk about war, about destruction, about threats," Moussa told Reuters during a visit to Italy.