09/08/2004 The Labor and Likud parties will hold a fresh round of negotiations on the formation of a unity government Monday, despite the lack of progress the day before in a meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Labor Chairman Shimon Peres. The two party leaders failed to end the crisis in the coalition negotiations, as the prime minister backed his negotiating team’s refusal to delay a cabinet vote on the 2005 budget until the parties reach an agreement on economic issues. Monday’s negotiations will be devoted to economic matters and will aim to find a way to leave room for Labor to influence the budget without postponing the cabinet vote. Peres told Sharon that while Labor’s main reason for entering the government is the disengagement plan, it cannot join without some concessions on economic and social issues – particularly given his party’s harsh reto the budget proposals presented to the cabinet Sunday.
Peres therefore proposed that the cabinet discuss the budget next Sunday as planned, but defer the vote until the following Sunday, by which time the coalition negotiations would hopefully be finished. But Sharon refused, saying that treasury professionals claim that a postponement will damage the economy. Even were an agreement finalized soon, Labor could probably not join the government anytime soon, since Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin will convene the Knesset for the necessary confidence vote only if 61 MKs ask him to do so. But several Likud MKs say they will not sign such a request unless the Likud convention approves Labor’s entry into the government, which is considered unlikely. Earlier Sunday, Peres confirmed media reports that negotiators from Labor and Likud have reached agreement on the terms of the Gaza pullback and on general policy toward the Palestinians. Peres said his main demands were adopted, including introducing a more detailed timetable for a Gaza withdrawal. But Yoram Dori, a spokesman for Peres, said the Gaza understanding is not finalized, and Sharon’s advisers declined comment. Peres also said Sharon was also willing to consider coordination with the Palestinians. „They [Sharon’s negotiators] agreed to see if they can find an effective Palestinian partner,” Peres told the Italian newspaper Il Secolo. Former Labor leader MK Amram Mitzna on Sunday said his party shouldn’t demand any ministerial portfolios if it joins the coalition. Labor must emphasize that if it joins the coalition, it will only be in order to push forward the disengagement process, Mitzna said in an interview with Israel Radio. „I definitely think that it’s fitting for the Labor Party – which is joining the government not out of national unity but out of national emergency – to do this without portfolios, but only for voting, for influence,” Mitzna said. „And I also think that we need to explain carefully the reasons that will bring us out of the government,” he added. Mitzna also criticized the Likud’s economic policy, and said Labor should have no part in it. „We have no interest in the government’s catastrophic economic-social policy,” he said. In contrast, Labor negotiating team member MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said he would do „everything possible” to keep his party out of the government if Labor is not allowed to play a role in formulating the budget. „If the Likud does not believe that we are serious in our demands with regard to economic and social issues, we will not enter the government,” he said over the weekend. „Arik [Sharon] keeps repeating the same cliche: ‘Forget all foolishness and let’s get together.’ So we’ll forget the foolishness and support disengagement from the outside.” The Prime Minister’s Bureau said Labor’s negotiating team „is hanging from a high tree and we will be glad to help it climb down, but not by postponing budget approval.” Sources in Sharon’s bureau noted that the prime minister’s first preference is for a coalition consisting of Likud, Shinui, Labor and United Torah Judaism (UTJ). Shinui MK Eliezer Sandberg on Sunday dismissed the possibility that his party would sit in a coalition with Shas, telling Israel Radio that the ultra-Orthodox party was certainly „not on our menu.” BPI-info
