19/08/2004 By Haaretz Service Aides to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon were quoted Thursday as saying that he intended to push ahead with the disengagement plan and talks over a Likud-Labor unity government, despite a stinging double defeat in the Likud convention. The crushing rebuff at the Wednesday night convention came in votes over a proposal by Likud „rebels” to block the Labor Party from joining a unity government. Convention members were asked to vote on two resolutions – one from Sharon, authorizing him to carry out coalition negotiations with any Zionist party, and a competing one from Minister Uzi Landau rejecting a coalition with Labor. Sharon’s own proposal was defeated by just 5 votes – but Landau’s passed 843 to 612, a majority of 231. The votes were hand counted following a computer breakdown. „The results of the vote will not affect the diplomatic process or the disengagement,” Israel Radio quoted Sharon aides as saying. They added that the prime minister intended to continue contacts toward a unity government with Labor. In what appeared to be one positive sign for Sharon, he won by a large majority at the polling station reserved for Likud MKs and ministers – the people who would actually vote in the Knesset for a Labor deal. The MKs voted 24-11 for his resolution and 15-19 against Landau’s proposal. If Sharon indeed wants to bring Labor in regardless of the convention’s decision, as he repeatedly declared before the vote, he will need these MKs’ full support. Nevertheless, it would be very difficult for Likud MKs to raise a hand in favor of a decision rejected so sweepingly by the convention, since it is the convention that controls their political fate – it chooses the party’s Knesset list. The defeat was all the more humiliating for Sharon because, unlike at previous Likud party gatherings, he and his people worked hard to win this vote, lobbying convention members energetically and making sure that the hall was packed with Sharon supporters so that booing from opponents could be offset by cries of „Arik, King of Israel!” And at the start of the convention, Sharon’s campaign appeared to be working, as he registered two victories. First, he won the unreserved backing of Education Minister Limor Livnat, thereby severing her previously close alliance with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Second, Shalom and Netanyahu – both of whom wield great clout in the Likud convention – opted not to speak at all, depriving the opposition of two trump cards. Their silence was surprising, since Shalom has been a vocal opponent of Labor’s entry and Netanyahu is widely believed to share his views. Officially, Netanyahu has said Labor could join if it accepted his economic policies, but since there is no chance that Labor would agree to do so, this is essentially a polite way of saying no. Shalom’s decision to remain silent showed his concern that by speaking, he would make the opposition seem motivated by personal concerns rather than by principle, since he has a deep personal interest in keeping Labor out – the entry of Shimon Peres would almost certainly cost him the Foreign Ministry. Netanyahu attributed his decision to his reluctance „to challenge the prime minister, especially as someone who has been a prime minister.” He also noted that Sharon gave him full backing during the recent cabinet discussions on the budget. But Sharon’s associates were unmoved, saying the prime minister had expected Netanyahu’s open support last night in exchange for Sharon’s backing on the budget. They also said that Netanyahu’s behavior was extremely odd – he was the only one of the Likud’s 40 MKs who declined to take a clear stand. Sharon, in his speech, reiterated his constant message of recent days that he has been forced to expand the coalition by the Likud’s refusal to support disengagement. „There are moments in a nation’s life when it has to make difficult decisions. Israel has reached such a moment. This debate will determine how the Likud will appear in the eyes of the country at such difficult moments,” he said. „The eyes of the nation are on us here to discover what I already know – that it is possible to rely on the Likud, and on you, for Israel’s fateful decisions.” „The present coalition is a good and convenient one,” he continued. „It would have been possible to continue with it, but that would require the entire Likud fto support all the government’s decisions. Otherwise, there is no choice but to expand the coalition.” There is a fwithin the Likud, Sharon charged, that „has worked against the government since its inception” and has now „announced that it intends to vote in the Knesset against the policy of our government, a Likud government. This is not appropriate behavior for members of a ruling party. It is behavior that is liable to bring the Likud to the verge of a split. We have to decide – will the Likud continue to run the country in a united, responsible and statesmanlike fashion, or is the Likud led by an extremist, rebellious and irresponsible opposition?”
The Likud, he added, has suffered boycotts by other parties in the past, and precisely because of this, it should not itself boycott any Zionist party. „I hear terrible cries of boycotts, hatred, bans, voices that threaten civil war… voices that call for violence against soldiers, policemen and even against me. We must make a different voice heard in the Likud… the voice of the late Menachem Begin, who prevented civil war before the founding of the state, who brought about a unity [government] on the eve of the Six Day War, who made peace with Egypt despite the difficulties. This is a voice that knows how to place the good of the state above any personal or party interest… If we do this, we will continue to be victorious.” Livnat backed Sharon in her speech, declaring: „Any boycott of a Zionist party is unacceptable. It is unacceptable morally, and it will hurt us electorally… Every time the national camp has failed to line up behind its leader, we have lost.” But Minister without Portfolio Landau, one of the leading opponents of both disengagement and Labor’s entry into the coalition, rejected both the allegation of boycott and the allegation that he and his fellows were a rebellious faction. It is Sharon, he charged, who has repeatedly „scorned” the Likud and its historic path – by terming Israel’s presence in the territories an „occupation,” by calling for a Palestinian state, and by ignoring the decision of Likud members, who rejected his disengagement plan in the May referendum. Sharon’s desire to bring in Labor is merely one more example of the prime minister’s utter contempt for his own party, Landau said. As for Labor, „we aren’t rejecting a party – we’re rejecting a path,” he said. Labor’s presence in the government, he said, would mean a return to the 1967 borders, the division of Jerusalem, an end to the army’s determined war on terror, and the return of both Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres to the center of the political stage. „We can’t split the national camp,” he said. „To vote for bringing in the Labor Party is to commit suicide.” Ministers Tzipi Livni and Gideon Ezra also spoke on Sharon’s behalf. Landau’s backers included Deputy Minister Michael Ratzon and MKs Michael Eitan and David Levy. BPI-info
