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.