Israel faces seismic political shift
Sharon set to form new centrist party Comes as Labour deserts coalition
JERUSALEM— Israel braced for a political earthquake today amid a frenzy of speculation Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is poised to quit his fractured right- wing Likud faction to seek re- election by launching a new centrist party. The blockbuster announcement, which would transform Israel’s political map, was expected today according to unnamed sources close to Sharon cited this morning on Israel Radio and the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper websites.
In what Israeli analysts have described as a political big- bang, the 77- year- old former general could draw as many as 14 moderate Likud political figures under a new banner that might also attract the country’s elder statesman, Shimon Peres, 82, who was recently ousted as Labour leader. The new, as- yet- unnamed party would occupy the centre. To the right, an imploded Likud would undergo a heated leadership race for the loyalty of hardcore nationalists still incensed by Sharon’s historic withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and settlements from the Gaza Strip against party wishes. The left would be dominated by a revitalized Labour party under its newly elected chairman, Amir Peretz, who has struck a nerve with Israelis by vowing to focus first on the country’s long neglected social ills.
Although Sharon’s ruling coalition remains technically intact, Labour leaders last night voted to withdraw from the government during an electionstyle rally in Tel Aviv. The event saw Peretz excoriate Sharon in his first- ever stump speech, saying Israeli could forgive Sharon’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and also his role contributing to anti-government
incitement in the run- up to the 1995 assassination of peacemaking prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, but Israel could not forgive Sharon for economic austerity measures that forced the elderly to “rummage through garbage bins” for food.
“ All those years the Likud told the unemployed, the hungry children, contract workers and a million salaried workers who earn minimum wage, ‘ Wait a little, we need to take care of security right now,’ ” Peretz said. “All those years they’ve been scaring us with the security demon.” Former Labour leader Peres was conspicuous in his absence at the Tel Aviv rally, heightening speculation he is poised to throw in with Sharon. The two, with a collective age of 159, are among Israel’s last living independenceera politicians.
Earlier yesterday, Sharon lavished praise on Peres during a weekly cabinet session, almost certainly the last such meeting before the government dissolves for early elections expected in March.
“This is the beginning of the joint work between us,” Sharon told Peres. “ I won’t let you turn away from completing the missions you are destined for. I’ll call on your assistance in the future.”
Sharon had spent the weekend sequestered with advisers at his ranch south of Tel Aviv, leaving the Israeli media to feast on unnamed sources offering predictions the prime minister was ready to sever his three- decadelong bond with Likud. A minority of Israeli commentators, however, suggested his brinksmanship was a bluff designed to frighten party rebels into line.
Sharon’s new party could include several high- profile Israeli personalities, including former Shin Bet intelligence chief Avi Dichter and former minister Dan Meridor, Haaretz reported today. Finance Minister Ehud Olmert, a former mayor of Jerusalem, is also expected to make the shift, having backed Sharon on the Gaza pullout. The scramble to succeed Sharon as Likud leader would be led by one- time Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned his position as finance minister in protest over Gaza. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz have also expressed interest in running. Weekend polls suggested that under a new party banner, Sharon would enjoy equal support to Labour’s Peretz, with each party projected to win 28 seats in the 120- seat Israeli parliament.
Sharon would likely fare better running with Likud, but the suggested outcome would return him to government atop a party almost ungovernably hostile to his leadership.
Sharon’s close confidants have suggested he aspires to one final term to fulfill a vision of moving forward with additional unilateral measures that would solidify Israel’s eastern border, entrenching the country’s controversial security fence as a political reality. Any such move would incense Palestinians, who object to the barrier’s encroachment onto West Bank land they envision as a future state. It would also enrage the Israel right by forcing the likely withdrawal of as many as 80,000 Jewish settlers living in communities on the Palestinian side of the fence. An unnamed associate of Sharon quoted today in Haaretz said the prime minister was tense because “ this is a dramatic and fateful decision fraught with danger.”