Sharon courts ultra-nationalist factions

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today began courting ultra-nationalist MPs in a bid to rebuild his coalition, which was left in a shambles by the departure of the centre-left Labour Party.

The political instability in Israel does not bode well for a new US-backed peace plan, and Palestinian officials said they fear a government stacked with hard-liners will adopt even tougher policies against them.

After Labour quit yesterday over a dispute about funding for Jewish settlements in the 2003 state budget, Sharon was left with a minority government that controls only 55 seats in the 120-member parliament.

The opposition might not muster the 61 MPs needed to topple the government, but it will become increasingly difficult for Sharon to govern.

“Sharon will now learn what coalition hell looks like, with all the demands, the blackmail and the threats,” wrote commentator Shalom Yerushalmi in the Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper.

Despite the unstable situation, Sharon said he would not seek elections ahead of the scheduled date – November 2003.

“I plan to make every effort to establish an alternative government,” Sharon said. “I have no intention of initiating early elections.”

The main target of Sharon’s courting is National Union-Israel Beitenu, a far-right grouping faction of seven MPs who oppose any negotiations with the Palestinians and advocate settlement expansion in the Palestinian areas.

The Israeli daily newspaper Maariv said Sharon has offered the faction’s leader, Avigdor Lieberman, the post of foreign or finance minister.

An MP from the National Union, Benny Elon, said he was unaware of such an offer. Sharon’s aides were not immediately available for comment.

However, Lieberman is a close ally of Sharon’s key rival for Likud Party leadership, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and appeared in no hurry to join the government.

Lieberman was quoted as saying before the break-up of the coalition that he would prefer early elections.

Elon said the final decision was up to the faction. Elon said Sharon should be urged to adopt a more hard-line government platform, which he said would be more in line with the premier’s right-wing convictions.

“We have to exploit the coming year to do things that he (Sharon) wanted to do but didn’t succeed to do,” Elon told Israel Radio.

Sharon offered the defence portfolio vacated by Labour leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to Shaul Mofaz, who served as army chief of staff until four months ago. A Sharon aide, Arnon Perlman, said today that Mofaz has accepted. Mofaz returned to Israel late last night from a trip abroad.

Sharon’s next test will come on Monday when parliament votes on a number of no-confidence motions. The government would only fall if 61 MPs vote against it.