Sharon (R) tried to get rid of his stubborn rival, Netanyahu (L)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, February 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hard-right government took office early Friday, February 28, with a mission to rescue the country's declining economy but looked set to put on ice the "peace process" with the Palestinians.

The line-up which received the Israeli parliament's confidence is one of the most right-wing in the Jewish state's history and drew early warnings of insurmountable differences within the cabinet leading to a collapse, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Israeli opinion was doubtful that, with diplomacy novice Silvan Shalom taking the post of Foreign minister and two pro-settler parties pulling the cabinet to the right, the government could get anywhere.

According to an opinion poll published Friday in the Yediot Aharonot daily, 64 percent of Israelis think it will be incapable of stopping what they called "terror attacks" by Palestinian groups or even curbing them substantially.

The same poll revealed that 52 percent of Israelis also think Sharon's new cabinet is not capable of "promoting an agreement with the Palestinians", while 46 percent expressed the opposite view.

In his swearing-in speech Thursday, February 27, night in parliament, Sharon was non-committal on the thorny issue of Palestinian statehood -- saying it would be dealt with "in due time" -- and appeared to put the Palestinian issue on the back burner.

Palestinian Crisis 'Low Priority'

Commentators said that a settlement with the Palestinians was a low priority for both Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush, as war clouds were gathering above Iraq.

"The U.S. president is now busy with preparations for the occupation of Iraq, and the prime minister is more interested in reviving the economy and dealing with issues of religion and state," the daily Haaretz said in an editorial.

"As far as both of them are concerned, the diplomatic process can, and must, wait until their agenda clears up from more urgent matters," editorialist Aluf Benn added.

This week Bush hinted that the political landscape in the region could change drastically after his troops attack Iraq, and made his "least ambiguous" linkage to date between the Iraqi crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bush said that a war on Iraq would “spread democracy” in the Arab world and speed the creation of a Palestinian state, adding that he will “safeguard” Iraq’s oil resources.

"Success in Iraq could also begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace, and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic Palestinian state," he said in a speech to a think-tank.

Some commentators have already suggested the new government, which was born after intense political wrangling, could be reshuffled before long and that Sharon would need to bring in the Labor party and dump the extreme-right to take the peace process forward.

Likud tried to lure Labor into a national unity government such as the one Sharon set up after his first electoral victory in March 2001, but new Labor leader Amram Mitzna consistently refused.

He responded to Sharon's inaugural speech by promising to lead a "responsible but fighting" opposition. "You have an opposition party which Israel needs very, very much," he told Sharon in front of the Knesset.

Analyst Gerald Steinberg predicted that even if Mitzna stood firm, his ailing party could split and some members could decide to join Sharon "within a few weeks, in the context of a war with Iraq or immediately afterwards."

Israeli newspapers did not rate the new Israeli government's chances of survival, and concurred that Israel was now waiting for the Iraqi war to be over to face the issues which usually top its agenda.

"The truth is that everyone is counting on George Bush and Saddam Hussein. In political and diplomatic circles, in security and economic circles, the approaching war in Iraq has become a kind of deus ex machina that will overturn the situation and bring a redeemer to Zion," was Maariv's sarcastic analysis.

Commenting on Sharon's appointments in his new government, Haaretz said in an editorial that it was "A day at the circus", adding that "something odd seems to happen to prime ministers in this country when it comes time to appoint their governments."

Strange Syndrome

The daily siad that as this "strange syndrome" happened to Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, when he tried to leave Ariel Sharon out of his government and was forced to bring him in and to Ehud Barak in 1999, when he infuriated his supporters with a series of bizarre appointments, it also happened to Ariel Sharon this week.

"The great victor in the elections, able to assemble a coalition to his liking with relative ease, stumbled and lost his balance when he approached the task of divvying up the booty between the top runners in his party." Haaretz added.

The real cause of concern, the paper said, is the "number of ill-advised appointments and an unhealthy working relationship even before the government gets down to business."

Referring to Sharon's decision to appoint the Finance Ministry, who performed poorly in the first time around as foreign minister and his attempt to get rid of his stubborn rival, Netanyahu, and naming him as finance minister, the paper said that sharon has turned appointment day into another day of acrobatic stunts in the political circus.