Israel budget vote brings Gaza pullout closer
Israel’s parliament removed the last legislative obstacle before implementation of this summer’s pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank, easily passing the state budget and saving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government from collapse.
The vote late yesterday was 58-36 with one abstention, a misleadingly wide margin for a government battered by opposition to the pullout plan. If the budget had not passed by tomorrow, Sharon would have had to resign, delaying or scuttling the withdrawal.
Parliamentary opponents of the pullout, even in Sharon’s own party, voted against the budget with that goal in mind.
But Sharon pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in special spending to three parties to gain their votes, ensuring a majority.
On Monday, the parliament rebuffed efforts to call a referendum, which would have delayed the pullout for months and might have brought down Sharon’s government.
With the end of the parliamentary manoeuvring, settlers and their backers pledged to take to the streets with their struggle against the plan to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank.
Security officials fear increasingly desperate settlers will resort to violence, including an attempt to attack a disputed holy site in Jerusalem or assassinate Sharon.
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said he picked up a warning that extremists among the settlers might open fire on soldiers who come to evacuate them.
Ezra said an opponent of the pullout told him it would be a good idea “if we can find a way to collect the weapons from the settlers in Gush Katif (Gaza) because somebody can shoot, and there could be casualties”.
In recent weeks, several hundred people have moved to Gaza to bolster opposition, though the military is taking steps to stop that, planning to declare Gaza a closed military area at least 45 days before the forcible evacuation is to begin.
The pullout has splintered Sharon’s Likud Party and realigned the parliament. Thirteen of Likud’s 40 lawmakers hotly oppose the withdrawal plan and voted against the government in the referendum and budget ballots after forcing a three-month delay in approval of the 2005 spending bill.
Sharon’s former allies – hard-line, pro-settlement factions – deserted him, forcing him to bring his natural rival, the moderate Labour Party, into his government instead.
But the Likud rebellion still left him short of votes for the budget. In weeks of wheeling and dealing, he secured a majority with a classic Israeli political manoeuvre – trading money for votes.
