Barak 'will not serve in Sharon government'
In a dramatic turnaround that may affect the possibilities of setting up a broad government in Israel, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak informed Ariel Sharon late last night that he would not serve as defence minister, an aide said.
Barak sent a letter to Sharon, who trounced him in an election on February 6. Sharon is trying to set up a national unity government with his Likud and Barak’s Labour parties.
Barak accepted Sharon’s offer to serve as defence minister, setting off a groundswell of opposition in his own party among activists who blamed him for the election failure.
The landslide vote was seen by many as a repudiation of Barak’s policy of offering far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians for peace. Sharon campaigned against Barak’s policy and harshly criticised Barak for conducting negotiations with the Palestinians while violence continued in the West Bank and Gaza.
Shortly after exit polls projected Barak’s loss to Sharon by nearly 25%, Barak announced that he would resign from the parliament and party leadership and would leave politics for a time. However, a few days later, citing national security considerations, he reversed his decision, accepting Sharon’s offer to serve in a joint Likud-Labour government.
Opposition within Labour to Barak’s attempt to remain in office surfaced immediately, and then negotiations between Likud and Labour hit a snag over the inclusion in the government of far-right parties that reject compromise with the Palestinians.
Barak said Labour would not join a government with the far-right parties, but Sharon, asked today if he would include them in his Cabinet, replied, ‘‘of course’’.
In Barak’s letter to Sharon, shown on Israel television, Barak claimed that Sharon had destroyed the credibility between them.
Barak said he would recommend that Labour join Sharon’s government if the conditions were right, but informed his party that he would resign from the party leadership and from the parliament.
The Labour party tentatively scheduled a convention for Monday to vote on joining the government.
Sharon, running out of patience, set a one-week deadline for a Labour decision, according to a Likud negotiator. After that, Sharon would move to set up a coalition with right-wing and Orthodox Jewish parties, said the negotiator, Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert.
Such a coalition would be unlikely to offer any concessions to the Palestinians but would have a small but stable majority in the parliament.
