Sharon's coalition unsteady after Gaza pullout vote
Sharon's coalition unsteady after Gaza pullout vote
Reuters, Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced the possible collapse of his governing coalition on Monday, with a key rightist partner debating bolting over the cabinet's approval of his Gaza withdrawal plan.
Sharon's plan passed by a 14-7 vote on Sunday but only after he placated mutinous ministers in his own right-wing Likud party by agreeing not to evacuate Jewish settlements for at least nine months and then only in four phases each requiring another vote.
By bowing to future votes of his unruly government for each phase of withdrawal, Sharon effectively left in the air the fate of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank he said he intended to remove by the end of 2005.
Palestinians welcome any pullout from Gaza but object to plans endorsed by U.S. President George W. Bush for Israel to keep parts of the occupied West Bank in return. The militant Hamas group called the cabinet decision "a big trick".
Sharon was clinging to a majority of just one seat in the 120- member parliament after firing two far-right ministers to secure the cabinet vote.
The pro-settler National Religious Party (NRP) debated whether to quit the coalition and rabbis who help formulate its policy were due to announce their opinion on the issue later in the day before a final decision by the NRP's parliamentary faction.
If the NRP abandoned Sharon, his coalition would drop to 55 seats in the 120-member parliament.
"We hope the NRP will stay, and even if the NRP does quit, the prime minister has a clear political alternative to obtain a majority," Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, told Army Radio in a clear reference to the pro-withdrawal Labour Party.
NRP lawmaker Shaul Yahalom said that while many NRP members opposed leaving Gaza "some say that if we leave the coalition, Labour will join immediately and the results will be worse".
Labour, led by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, has 19 legislators. In a sign of support for Sharon, Labour withdrew a parliamentary no-confidence motion scheduled for Monday.
But it showed no inclination to join up with him before a decision, which is not expected before mid-June, by the attorney general on whether to indict Sharon in a bribery scandal.
In Cairo, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel and Egypt were "very close" to a deal on deploying more Egyptian troops along the Gaza frontier to stop weapons smuggling by Palestinian militants.
Egyptian cooperation is crucial for any future Israeli troop pullback from a Gaza border corridor Israel says it will leave only after a "reliable alternative arrangement" with Egypt.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak he accepted his demands for Palestinian security reforms, possibly enabling an Egyptian role in Gaza after any Israeli pullout, officials said on Monday.
Arafat was responding by letter to Egypt's mid-June deadline to agree to security overhauls or risk forgoing Cairo's help in stabilizing Gaza after a withdrawal, which Israel's cabinet approved in principle on Sunday.
But the extent of reforms agreeable to Arafat was not known. He has previously balked at such steps, which Israel and the United States said complicated efforts to revive peacemaking between the Palestinians and Israel. Palestinians blame further Israeli army raids for the stalemate.
"Arafat accepted the Egyptian ideas on security reforms to avoid a confrontation with Egypt," a Palestinian official said.
"He believes Israel will not accept Egypt's ideas for a truce and a safe corridor between the West Bank and Gaza. So why have a showdown with Egypt now?" the official added.
Egypt has offered to help train Palestinian security forces to fill the vacuum once Israel uproots Jewish settlements and withdraws troops. Cairo is keen to avert a takeover by powerful Islamist militants in a territory on its border.