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  Powerful Israeli opposition leader agrees to support state budget
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Last EditedNone Entered  Mar 30, 2005 11:15pm
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News DateSunday, March 27, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionA powerful Israeli opposition leader reached agreement with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday to support the state budget, removing the last major legislative hurdle to Sharon's plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip this summer. The support from the opposition Shinui party would ensure Sharon a majority for his budget, which he needs to pass by Thursday to avoid the collapse of his government.

If the budget fails to pass, the legislature would automatically be dissolved and elections would have to be held within three months, delaying and possibly derailing the planned Gaza withdrawal.

A majority in the legislature has repeatedly supported the Gaza pullout. But Sharon's budget faced the combined opposition of rebel legislators within his own badly riven Likud party who are opposed to the planned Gaza withdrawal and other legislators who do not like the budget for fiscal reasons.

But Sharon and Joseph Lapid, leader of the Shinui party, reached an agreement late yesterday sealing the opposition party's support for the budget, Lapid said.

"We did it mainly because we didn't want to halt the peace process and disengagement," Lapid said.

Sharon spokesperson Assaf Shariv confirmed the agreement, but was cautious about declaring the plan to withdraw from all of Gaza and four settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan River complete.

"In politics, you never know what can happen."
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