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Barak Departure Opening Way For Unity Government?
JERUSALEM, Feb 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Defeated Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's abrupt decision to quit political life smoothed the path Wednesday for Ariel Sharon to form a national unity government, as the hardliner reportedly tried to woo former premier Shimon Peres to be defense minister.
Barak, who announced after his crushing defeat that he was resigning from parliament and taking a breather from politics, said late Tuesday he would not serve as defense minister in Sharon's government or continue as party leader, apparently bowing to fierce criticism of his about-face from within Labor.
His decision reverses an agreement he had made with Sharon five days earlier to form a national unity government.
Israeli radio said Sharon offered the defense post to Peres, the internationally popular Nobel Peace laureate, although Sharon's office said it could not confirm the report.
Labor officials immediately denounced Sharon for interference, saying the party should be able to designate its own ministers.
A Sharon spokesman said Barak's resignation would boost Sharon's goal of forming a broad coalition including Labor and Sharon's right-wing Likud party to counter a nearly five-month-old Palestinian uprising.
"We don't interfere in internal affairs of the Labor party and, and Mr. Barak was Sharon's preferred candidate for the defense portfolio but we hope that his resignation will help the creation of a national unity government," said spokesman Raanan Gissin.
A senior Palestinian official was pessimistic about the developments, saying the "political chaos in Israel is harmful to the peace process."
"Our main concern is to see a government that is committed to continue the path of negotiations where they left off," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Binyamin Ben Eliezer, communications minister in the Barak government, said Labor should be willing to form a coalition with the far-right, potentially including controversial politicians such as Avigdor Lieberman and Rehavam Zeevi, a prospect Barak had ruled out.
"I have been working for five months to create a national unity cabinet, and if one can sit down with Yasser Arafat to talk about peace, one cannot rule out anyone in the government," Ben Eliezer told public radio.
Ben Eliezer paid tribute to Barak, telling the radio that, "history will do him justice by holding him up as a very great leader."
But Interior Minister Haim Ramon blasted Barak calling his resignation "the logical progression of what should have happened two weeks ago," when Sharon defeated Barak by a humiliating 25 points.
Barak "leaves behind him a shameful resignation letter of a shabby politician," Ramon added.
In a bitter letter to Sharon, accusing him of reneging on how the new government would be formed, Barak said he had agreed to serve as defense minister "out of national responsibility and knowing the price I would have to pay," a reference to his shock election night announcement he would leave politics for the time being.
"But in reading recent press headlines, I realized what you mean by a common task," Barak wrote, referring to newspaper commentaries saying he would have to obey Sharon's orders.
Barak leaves the already divided Labor in an even greater shambles, with no obvious leaders in sight.
As well as Ben Eliezer and Ramon, other potential candidates for Labor's top job include parliament speaker Avraham Burg, who like Ramon has a history of animosity with Barak, and outgoing Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami, a soft-spoken dove.
Labor's central committee is to meet Monday to set a date for a primary vote on the party leadership, probably sometime in June, and to discuss the unity government.
Before Barak's resignation, Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert, a Likud negotiator in unity talks, had said Labor must decide by Monday whether to enter a coalition.
Sharon has vowed to take a tough line with the Palestinians, refusing to resume talks until an end to the violence that has claimed the lives of close to 420 people, most of them Palestinians, and vowing no compromise on the future of Jerusalem, areas of Palestinian control and Jewish settlements in the territories.
If Labor does not agree to the broad left-right coalition, Likud will have to try to form a narrow 66-seat alliance in the 120-member Knesset with far rightwing and religious parties.
Some on Labor's left have vowed to fight any union with the right, which Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said would be "morally unacceptable, as it goes against all our principles."
The Israeli press described Barak's resignation with a sense of drama, describing him as a tragic figure who had failed to realize when to give up.
"A Sad End," read the headline on a column by the Maariv newspaper's Hemi Shalev.
"A little late, the curtain falls ...He had to learn the hard way that his time was up, but he finally did get the idea. He surrendered, after a short and unnecessary struggle, to powers greater than him to begin with."
Sharon has until March 29th to form a new government. Once he does, Barak resigns as prime minister, and Sharon will take office.
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