It looked like smooth sailing, but the bid by Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon for a quick national unity government has run into rough waters due to sharp divisions within the Labor party over outgoing PM Ehud Barak’s decision to stay on as defense minister.
Senior leaders of Israel’s peace camp refuse to call it quits – even during the throes of an election campaign they appear certain to lose – pressing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to enter marathon peace talks with the Palestinians in hopes of reaching a framework accord before the February 6 balloting for a new premier.
The gnawing debate inside Israel’s peace camp about whether arch-dove Shimon Peres should replace Ehud Barak as the Labor party’s candidate for prime minister seemed less relevant on Friday, as the latest polls showed Likud chairman Ariel Sharon now defeating either one come February 6.
Pushing a key element in its alternate agenda for survival, the shrunken cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud decided to close the Religious Affairs Ministry by the end of the month. The move is a key plank in Barak’s “social revolution,” a second option to rebuild a secular/left coalition in case peace talks with the Palestinians collapse.
JERUSALEM, Israel, 12 August 2000 (Newsroom) — Amid concerns by secular Jews that the wall between church and state is softening, Israel’s first Sephardi president insists that his priority is unifying a country that is agonizing over its character and future.