Posted on 01/31/2003 1:49:30 PM PST by anotherview
Friday, January 31, 2003 Shvat 28, 5763 Israel Time: 21:05 (GMT+2)
PM rebuffs rumors he will offer defense portfolio to Labor
By Aluf Benn and Yossi Verter, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday afternoon that rumors he was going to offer Labor the defense portfolio as part of a deal to lure them into the coalition were false. According to Sharon, the issue is not open for discussion, since current defense minister Shaul Mofaz will continue at his post in the 16th Knesset.
"Mofaz is a great defense minister... and will continue to be defense minister in the next government," Sharon told reporters Friday.
Also Friday, the prime minister held a morning meeting with Shinui chairman Yosef (Tommy) Lapid at his Sycamore Ranch, during which Lapid told the prime minister that Shinui would be willing to be part of a coalition that included United Torah Judaism, but not one that included Shas. Lapid also told the prime minister that it was possible to cobble up a coalition without the Labor Party.
The two also discussed the possibility of establishing a broad coalition without the left or the extreme right. On Thursday Lapid hinted that he was not ruling out the possibility of joining a secular government that did not include the Labor Party. Lapid expressed hope that MK Shimon Peres would lead Labor into the coalition.
Sharon will meet with Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna on Monday. A close associate of the prime minister said Sharon will suggest that teams from both Labor and Likud work together to formulate the basic guidelines of the government on which all participants in a unity government would agree.
Sharon is considering a visit to Washington in the coming weeks to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush. The prime minister's office requested that the White House check the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders, and is waiting for a response. The issue was also raised during a telephone conversation between Bush and Sharon on Wednesday.
Sharon wants to highlight his understandings with Bush with respect to the political plan presented by the president in his June 24 speech. A meeting would demonstrate Sharon's intention to quickly advance the political process, in the wake of his election victory. That would increase pressure on Labor to join a unity government, and foil plans for an imposed international peace through the "road map" plan prepared by the Quartet - which includes the U.S., the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
Minister Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said Thursday that Sharon would do everything possible to form a national unity government, as he promised during the elections, but if he did not succeed, he would also try to form a narrow right-wing coalition.
"Likud will form a government with every party that supports Bush's 'roadmap' [for peace]," Rivlin said.
Mitzna meets Lapid in bid to keep Shinui out of unity gov't Mitzna met Lapid in a Tel Aviv hotel Thursday afternoon to propose that their two parties cooperate in opposition to the government to be formed by Sharon.
Lapid told Mitzna that Labor should issue conditions for joining a unity government, while Mitzna tried to convince Lapid to stay out of the government, Israel Radio reported.
"We agreed to disagree," Lapid said after the meeting. The Shinui chairman said that his party would reconsider its position on joining a unity government and would not be held hostage by Labor.
"Perhaps the Likud agrees with everything we demand," Lapid said to Mitzna as the two appeared before reporters after their meeting at the Dan Hotel. Perhaps the Likud will agree with everything you demand. So why rule out ahead of time a partnership with the Likud?"
Sharon has 28 days from the day President Moshe Katsav gives him the mandate to form a government and he plans to use all that time (plus an optional two-week extension if necessary) for one purpose: to create a breach in the Labor Party that will enable it, or part of it, to join his government.
Personally, the talk about an 'enforced peace', post-Iraq, scares the hell out of me.
Suffice it to say that my concern is rooted in a measure of knowledge of scripture that refers to the events prophesied about concerning the last days.
Trusting anyone would be foolish for Israel, I think; most especially the U.N., the Europeans or Russia. And frankly the leftists in our State Department are not people they should be trusting their very survival to.
But when they do, they are going to open up the world's most dangerous can of worms.
Boy, I hope you are right. No way do I want to see the US pressuring Israel to give up part of her land!
And that Quartet is an unholy alliance, if ever I've seen one!
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