08:44 12/07/2004 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to meet Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres Monday morning for initial talks on the possibility of forging a Likud-Labor unity government. Sharon’s associates said on Sunday that efforts would be made to ensure Silvan Shalom continues to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the event that the Labor Party joins the coalition. It is believed that Sharon’s major obstacle in forming a coalition with labor is the detrimental effects the move could have on Shalom and on Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Deputy Ra’anana Mayor Uzi Cohen, an influential Likud Central Committee member, told Likud activists in remarks broadcast Monday that „If the Labor Party joins the coalition, it will put a cancer into the Likud,” Uzi Cohen. „Whoever harms Silvan,” in the context of the unity terms, „there will be World War III here.” The prime minister’s associates on Sunday said one possibility could be to compensate labor by giving the party control of eight ministries instead of six. Shalom and Netanyahu met Sunday and agreed to object to any changes in the government’s economic or political policies. Meanwhile, the Labor Party is considering withdrawing a no-confidence motion filed last week as coalition talks are underway. The party will only decide whether or not to withdraw the motion over the continuing crisis in the cash-strapped local authorities, following Monday morning’s scheduled breakfast between Peres and Sharon. After the meeting at Sharon’s official residence in Jerusalem, Peres is expected to take Sharon’s offer to the Labor faction. Labor MK Haim Ramon, who is in favor of the party joining the coalition government, said Sunday that „it will be wrong to present a no-confidence motion if Peres declares at the end of [their] meeting that he recommends entering into negotiations over joining the coalition.” Certain elements in the Likud, meanwhile, met Sunday to discuss ways to thwart the establishment of the unity government. The meeting of Likud „rebels” decided that they will petition fmembers to oppose the establishment of a national unity government. Minister without portfolio Uzi Landau convened the meeting in his Tel Aviv chambers. At the start of the meeting, he said the Labor Party’s inclusion in the coalition would turn a national government into a leftist-secular one. He added that such a move would disrupt Israel’s war on terror and harm the Likud’s social-economic platform. The Likud members at Sunday’s meeting also decided to collect the signatures needed to force a meeting of the party’s Central Committee. Another move being considered is to pressure the chairman of the Likud Knesset fGideon Sa’ar to bring the issue up for a vote by secret ballot, assuming that the number of opponents in the fis greater than the number publicly declared. Landau believes a national unity government will make the Likud a hostage to Labor and Shinui, and that such a decision should first be brought before the Likud party organs. At least ten „rebel” Likud MKs attended the meeting called by Landau, along with about 50 prominent Likud grass-roots activists – the same group that successfully torpedoed the disengagement plan in the Likud membership referendum. Sharon sent Netanyahu a clear message at the Caesarea Conference last Thursday praising his economic policies and talking of future cooperation. Sharon also told associates he would try to keep the Foreign Ministry portfolio for Shalom. While there is some opposition to national unity in Labor, led by MKs Yuli Tamir and Eitan Cabel, it is considered minor compared to the feeling in favor of joining the government. Opposition in Labor to the Likud’s economic policies, however, may be an obstacle, and there is much discussion among Labor’s leaders over the number and distribution of ministerial portfolios. NRP to meet to discuss future in coalition National Religious Party’s fchief MK Nissan Slomiansky will convene a meeting Monday to discuss the party’s future in the coalition. Slomiansky told Haaretz on Sunday that he will urge party MKs to quit the government, should Labor enter the coalition. He said that if Labor enters the government, the NRP has no business in staying, „At the moment the NRP is in,” he said, „in order to keep Labor from entering the government, to buy time and try to neutralize the separation plan. Should the Labor Party join the coalition, not only would we be unable to delay the plan, it would be expedited, since that is one of the Labor Party’s demands.” Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev called on NRP chairman, Effi Eitam and MK Yitzhak Levy to come back to the government immediately, thus preventing Labor from entering a unity government. Orlev said the Labor party would ask to change government policy and demand to expand and expedite the Gaza pull out. This would mean the end of a coalition with the NRP, said Orlev, as well as considerable damage to West Bank settlements. „We must remember that the need to bring Labor into the coalition arose as a result of Eitam’s Knesset no-confidence vote, which catalyzed Sharon’s decision to turn to the Labor Party. I urge Eitam and Levy to return to the government and avoid irreparable damage to the Katif Bloc and West Bank settlements.” said Orlev.
