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Sharon party agrees coalition plan
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| Contributor | Some say... |
| Last Edited | Some say... Dec 09, 2004 05:43pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | TV News - CNN |
| News Date | Thursday, December 9, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | JERUSALEM, Israel (CNN) -- The central committee of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling Likud party has voted to allow Sharon to form a new government that would include the opposition Labor Party.
The vote gives Sharon the backing he needs to form a new coalition intent on carrying out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
Sharon won the support of 62 percent of the 2,267 central committee members who voted, party officials announced.
Sharon wants Israel to withdraw all its troops and about 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza and four small areas in the northern West Bank.
But Sharon has battled an ongoing rebellion within his own party, led by parliament member Uzi Landau.
Israel Radio published a poll Thursday that showed 70 percent of Israelis would support a Likud-Labor unity government.
But the survey showed Sharon's own party was split: 48 percent of Likud members surveyed backed Sharon, while 41 percent did not.
After a budget battle last week, Sharon fired members of the Shinui (Hebrew for Change) Party, leaving his government with control of only 40 seats in the 120-member parliament, The Knesset.
The Labor Party and its leader, former Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, have supported the Gaza disengagement plan.
However, Labor's agreement on joining the government is not automatic. Next Sunday, Labor will decide when to hold new party leadership elections.
Peres wants to put those elections off until the coalition talks are over, but former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, trying to make a comeback, wants to go ahead with the election.
A new leadership at the top of Labor would pose new difficulties for Sharon in forming a new government.
Bringing Labor into the coalition would provide Sharon with 59 seats.
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