Sharon struggles to form unity government
Winning Israel’s general election was the easy part. Now premier Ariel Sharon faces an uphill battle to form a national unity government against “the murderous hatred” of Palestinian militants.
The parties he needs for a broad-based coalition are not willing to join the old hard-liner after his resounding victory.
If Sharon can’t form a unity government, he may have to settle for an alliance with religious and ultranationalist parties that are opposed to US backed peace moves and demand even tougher measures against the Palestinians.
Israel TV quoted Sharon as saying off-camera that he’d rather call new elections than preside over such a narrow coalition.
Many Palestinians said they feared a worsening of the Mideast crisis during a second Sharon term. With Israelis focused on their internal politics, there appeared no prospect for a quick resumption of peace negotiations that broke down two years ago.
Sharon will have 42 days to put together his government, and it is common for the process to take several weeks as the parties haggle for Cabinet positions and clout in the coalition. He was at his sheep ranch in the Negev Desert today and had no public appearances planned.
As perhaps Israel’s most controversial politician, Sharon was considered unelectable just a few years ago.
But the 74-year-old veteran of military and political wars pulled off what no prime minister has achieved since founding father David Ben-Gurion managed it in 1961 – calling an early election and winning.
Sharon’s hawkish Likud almost doubled its strength, from 19 to 37 seats in the 120 member parliament. Likud’s political rival, the centre-left Labour, posted its worst-ever showing, dropping from 26 to 19 seats.
Sharon profited from the Israeli electorate’s shift to the right in response to the fighting with the Palestinians.
Many Israelis are angry at the Palestinians, believing they turned away from negotiations to launch their uprising 28 months ago. Voters blamed Labour, which led the failed peace negotiations, for the nation’s troubles.
Addressing Likud supporters in Tel Aviv early today, Sharon said Israelis must unite against external threats. ”The differences between us are dwarfed by the murderous hatred of the terror organisations,” he said.
Sharon has said he wants to revive his 20 month alliance with Labour that collapsed last November. But he did not mention the party by name in his victory speech or offer any policy incentives that might prompt Labour to reverse its campaign promise to stay out of a Sharon government.
“There’s no doubt that the Likud can go and establish a right-wing, nationalist government based on yesterday’s results,” said Limor Livnat, a Likud Cabinet minister.
“But the prime minister has said all the way that he supports with all his heart ... a broad, national unity government because the challenges we are facing now are especially difficult,” she added.
Israeli commentators also said that Sharon wanted to avoid presiding over a narrow right-wing government, because it would limit his political options and be vulnerable to collapse.
“A right-wing government would severely reduce the political manoeuvring in facing the Americans and make it difficult for Sharon to find a way out of the economic collapse,” said Nahum Barnea.
“You have Sharon in a new government, a war against Iraq imminent, the disappearance of the peace process, all these factors,” said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, adding that nonetheless the Palestinians respected Israel’s democratic choice.
A big election winner in the election was pundit-turned-politician Yosef “Tommy” Lapid’s centrist Shinui Party, which more than doubled its strength to 15 seats, becoming the third-largest faction.
Shinui, which successfully appealed to disaffected middle-class voters rebelling against what they perceive as religious coercion by ultra-Orthodox Jewish political parties and an unfair tax burden.
Further complicating coalition scenarios, Lapid insisted he would only join a coalition with Likud and Labour, without religious parties.
Two high profile Israeli political leaders announced they were stepping down after their parties fared poorly.
Yossi Sarid, leader of Meretz, a party associated with peace moves toward the Palestinians, resigned after losing four seats .
Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident and leader of the Russian immigrant party, Israel B’Aliya, said he was quitting parliament after his party went from four seats to two. He said he planned to stay on as party leader and work to broaden its appeal beyond the immigrant community.
