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Opposition determined to force early elections in Israel

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November 29, 2000 

JERUSALEM-- (UNB/AP) - Israel's hard-line opposition on Tuesday rebuffed a final appeal by Prime Minister Ehud Barak that it join a national emergency government, and said it was determined to force early elections with a crucial vote in parliament.

The vote was be held late Tuesday evening, after several hours of debate.

At the start of the day, it appeared the vote would be close and that the opposition might not be able to muster the absolute majority - 61 of 120 legislators - that is required to get the bill passed.

However, on Tuesday afternoon, two previously undecided factions - the centrist Shinui party and the One Nation workers faction - said they would vote for early elections. Israeli commentators said that with the support of Shinui and One Nation, it appeared the opposition would have a comfortable majority for calling early elections.

Tuesday's vote marks only the first of three readings. The second and third readings might not be held for another few weeks, giving Barak more time for political maneuvers, such as making another attempt to form a broad coalition.

Barak said Tuesday that those trying to push the country into early elections at a time of crisis - two months of bloody fighting with the Palestinians - acted irresponsibly.

"The nation is not interested in elections," Barak told Israel army radio. "What Israel needs is a national emergency government."

However, opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who in recent weeks unsuccessfully tried to negotiate the terms of a political partnership with Barak, said he was no longer interested in an alliance. "Today, my friends and I will make every effort to get the early elections bill pass," Sharon said on army radio.

In both political camps, there has been strong opposition to a so-called national unity government of Barak's Labor party and Sharon's Likud faction.

In Labor, many said that by bringing the hawkish Sharon into the government, Barak would close the door to peace with the Palestinians. In Likud, many preferred early elections because polls suggest Barak will be trounced by any Likud candidate.

In the past few weeks, Barak has been trying to accommodate opposing forces.

Sharon has said he would only join the coalition if Barak walked away from concessions he offered the Palestinians in previous negotiations, and the army reportedly has pushed for permission to respond more harshly to Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

However, Barak has made a peace agreement with the Palestinians the top priority of his administration. An all-out attack on the Palestinians or an announcement that Israel was withdrawing from earlier concessions would close the door to any peace deal.

On Tuesday, the prime minister again proposed negotiating a long-term interim agreement with the Palestinians, instead of trying to solve all problems at once.

Barak said that if the Palestinians were unwilling to make painful compromises on some issues now, "we are preparing for ... a long-term interim agreement, portions of which will be carried out at a later date."

Barak did not provide details.

The Haaretz daily said that under such a deal, Israel would recognize a Palestinian state and hand over more West Bank territory. Israel would considering the uprooting of several isolated Jewish settlements, in exchange for Palestinian recognition that several large settlement blocs will eventually be annexed to Israel.

The most difficult issues - the status of Jerusalem and the future of Palestinian refugees - would be negotiated at a later time, with both sides agreeing on a mechanism for doing so, Haaretz said.

The Palestinians have rejected interim deals. "What we are looking for is reaching a final agreement that will solve all the issues," Ahmed Qureia, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Monday. "We don't want partial agreements."

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, 17 Palestinians were injured, including two seriously, when Israeli soldiers fired tank-mounted machine guns to end a firefight near the town of Rafah, Palestinian doctors said. Palestinians detonated two explosives near Israeli army patrols in Gaza, but there were no reports of injuries.

Overnight, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire in several areas of the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli soldiers shot at an Orthodox Christian club in the West Bank town of Beit Jalla, in response to Palestinian police fire from the building on the nearby Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, the army said. Gilo was built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed to Jerusalem.

Still, the level of violence has ebbed. On Monday, the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, no one was killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting - a first in three weeks.

The Israeli government said that because of Ramadan, it would slightly ease its tight blockade of Palestinian towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As part of the measures, the crossings from Gaza to Egypt and from the West Bank to Jordan were to reopen, and fuel was to be permitted into the Palestinian areas.