Sharon brings centrist Shinui Party into his coalition

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brought the centrist Shinui Party into his coalition yesterday, ensuring a slim majority in parliament that will allow him to form a government, a spokesman for Sharon said.

The deal was closed a day after the centre-left Labour Party abandoned coalition talks, leaving Sharon without the more moderate face he sought ahead of anticipated US pressure for concessions to the Palestinians after any war in Iraq.

Sharon assured his rightist Likud party of a slim 61-seat majority in the 120-member parliament following a day of violence in which Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and an Israeli soldier was shot dead. Curbing such violence, which has raged since the start of the nearly 29-month Palestinian uprising for independence, will be one of the central tasks of the incoming government, which will also have to deal with a spiralling economic crisis.

Sharon signed a deal with Shinui, a stridently secular party, after bringing into his coalition the National Religious Party, a champion of Jewish settlements on occupied land and an opponent of a Palestinian State, Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin said. Shinui, led by former journalist Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, became Israel’s third largest party in the recent election, riding a wave of resentment among secular Israelis over privileges enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox community.