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Sharon wins key vote on alliance for Gaza plan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-10 09:22
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won a crucial Likud party vote on
Thursday that will let him bring opposition Labour into his shattered coalition
and power forward a plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
Averting a likely snap election, the rightist Likud's Central Committee
reversed an earlier decision by voting 62 to 38 percent to allow talks on a
unity government.
It was a blow for hardline party rebels, who oppose giving up the Gaza Strip
or any land captured in the 1967 war, and tried to prevent an alliance with
pro-withdrawal Labour as a way to stop it.
"This is a good opportunity for the prime minister," said Gila Gamliel, a
Likud lawmaker.
Western countries, buoyed by new hope of Middle East peace talks after Yasser
Arafat's death last month, back the Gaza withdrawal as a step towards a
settlement. But Palestinians fear it is a ruse to cement Israel's hold on the
West Bank.
Underlining the enduring conflict, a Gaza militant leader survived a missile
strike in Israel's first assassination attempt in the occupied territories since
Arafat died on Nov 11. A missile later hit an explosives-laden truck in northern
Gaza.
Likud hardliners failed in a last-minute bid to stop the Likud vote in Tel
Aviv. They oppose Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and evacuate four of 120
settlements in the West Bank next year, calling it a "victory for terror".
Thursday's non-binding vote reverses the decision of the Central Committee in
August to reject bringing dovish Labour into the coalition. Members were also
asked to authorise coalition talks with two ultra-Orthodox parties.
The risk of elections, almost two years early, appeared to have persuaded
party members. Voters yearning for political stability might have taken out
their anger on Likud by reducing its 40-seat strength in the 120-member
parliament.
Coalition talks could start as early as Friday, though Labour still has to
agree on terms for joining an alliance with Likud and suffers its own internal
rifts.
"I am struggling to achieve a national unity government -- nothing else,"
said Labour leader and veteran peacemaker Shimon Peres. "Everything else is
trivial."
Sharon's coalition has been whittled down to a minority government with the
departure of ultranationalist parties over opposition to his Gaza plan. He
ousted the secularist Shinui party last week after it voted against the 2005
budget.
An alliance with Labour, the second biggest party in parliament, could ensure
a stable coalition. Sharon now needs a majority to pass the budget by March to
avoid automatic elections.
Nicknamed "The Bulldozer" for his aptitude at ploughing through opposition,
Sharon has also been lifted by fresh optimism that peace talks with the
Palestinians might resume after a Jan. 9 election for a successor to Arafat.
Sharon has said he might be willing to scale back Israeli army sweeps if
militants halted attacks in a four-year-old revolt, but there has been a
resurgence in violence in the Gaza Strip this week after a relative lull.
The head of the Popular Resistance Committees, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and two
other militants survived a missile strike in Gaza by jumping out of their car
moments before it was destroyed. They sufferred only light injuries.
"Assassination attempts, even if they succeed, won't weaken the resistance,
but only strengthen it. We will continue fighting until we liberate all
Palestinian land," Samhadana said.
A missile later hit a truck carrying explosives outside the home of a
militant leader in northern Gaza, causing a huge blast.
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