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by Nomi Bar-Yaacov
JERUSALEM, June 20 (AFP) - Israel's powerful ultra-Orthodox Shas party quit Prime Minister Ehud Barak's coalition Tuesday, throwing the government into turmoil at a crucial moment in the peace process with the Palestinians. But Prime Minister Ehud Barak reassured the Israeli public after meeting Shas leader Eli Yishai that "we are very far away from elections" stressing that he wants Shas to stay in the coalition, but would not yield to "coercion." At the same time, the prime minister invited other parties to join his coalition saying his preferred government was the widest possible. "We want to see Shas in the government but we will obviously respect their decision whatever it is," Barak said at a hastily convened press conference after four Shas ministers tendered their resignations in a long-running feud over funding for the party's bankrupt religious schools. The long-running saga is not over yet as the resignations do not take effect until Thursday afternoon, leaving the door open to further political bargaining to keep Barak's 11-month-old motley coalition together. Barak said he expected to hear from the party before the deadline expires, adding that 90 percent of the problems had been resolved. The latest political troubles erupted two weeks ago after Shas and two other right-wing and religious parties in Barak's coalition sided with the opposition in a parliamentary vote backing early elections. Barak's six-party coalition drawn from the left and right and secular and religious factions currently has a 68-52 majority in the 120-seat parliament. The departure of Shas - which has played a pivotal role in governments from both the left and right - would leave Barak with a minority of 51 MPs. Asked what would be his preferred government, Barak said: "The widest possible that will move forward in Israel's interests." "All the possibilities are there, including a wider government acting according to our guidelines and policies of bringing peace and security for Israel. Likud and Israel Our Home are also for peace and security," he said in a reference to the leading right-wing opposition party and a small far-right Russian immigrant party that proposed the early elections bill. Eli Suissa, who resigned as national infrastructure minister, said Shas, Barak's biggest coalition partner, was still open to more negotiations to resolve the festering dispute over funding to prop up the party's bankrupt religious school network. "It depends on the prime minister. The ball is in his court," Suissa told AFP. The resignation letters were presented to Barak after the Shas spiritual leadership ordered the ministers to quit a week ago. The crisis has forced Barak into a complex game of brinkmanship and bluff that many commentators say has exposed his shortcomings on the domestic front while he focuses his efforts on striking peace with Israel's Arab neighbors. Barak is battling to win public support for peace with the Palestinians with a deadline for a final accord less than three months away and is facing a mounting campaign by right-wing Jewish settlers against his reported intention to hand over more than 90 percent of the West bank to the Palestinians. Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yossef gave his backing to the settlers on Tuesday. "Yosef is demanding the preservation of Eretz Israel," the term used to describe the biblical lands of Israel that include the occupied West Bank seized by Israel from Jordan in 1967, Yair Peretz of Shas said. And while the tortuous negotiations with Barak's One Israel block were going on, Shas officials were also flirting openly with the right-wing opposition Likud bloc ahead of possible early elections. "The party will stand for election and obtain more than 17 seats," Shas political leader Eli Yishai told a Shas conference for women Tuesday. Leaders of Meretz, the left-wing secular party at loggerheads with Shas over the schools system, had said Monday its ministers were prepared to resign their cabinet posts while remaining in the coalition in a bid to resolve the crisis. But Barak had rejected the proposal, said Agriculture Minister Haim Oron of Meretz, which has 10 seats in parliament. |
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