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Barak makes demands for joining coalition Government

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February 12, 2001 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Ehud Barak and his Labor party on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon adopt a policy of compromise toward the Palestinians as a condition for joining a coalition government.

But Barak, the outgoing premier, also said the peace offers he made to the Palestinians were no longer on the table and would not bind Sharon.

While Israeli politicians negotiated, a 35-year-old Israeli motorist was shot and killed on a West Bank road, just south of Jerusalem, officials said. Also, a fierce nighttime gunbattle raged in nearby Bethlehem between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers, though there was no immediate word on casualties.

In other violence, a roadside bomb exploded in the Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported. A group calling itself the Palestinian National Resistance Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

Gilo, an east Jerusalem neighborhood on contested land, came under fire from the Palestinian village of Beit Jalla across the valley. No injuries were reported, the police said.

Sharon, who was elected prime minister last Tuesday, has threatened to deal harshly with violence directed at Israelis. But he has yet to form a government and assume office.

Sharon and Barak met for the second time in three days Sunday for talks about a unity government. Labor elder statesman Shimon Peres put prospects for a unity government at 50-50.

Peres, an architect of Israel's first peace accord with the Palestinians in 1993, said he would only agree to join such a coalition if he were appointed foreign minister.

``If I can contribute to peace, I'll be a member,'' Peres told Israel radio. ``If not, I won't.''

Sharon, who trounced Barak in Tuesday's election, has pledged to halt months of violence and has said he will not offer the wide-ranging concessions to the Palestinians that Barak had proposed. He has said the violence must stop before peace negotiations resume.

But he also wants to include the center-left Labor party in a broad coalition that wouldn't be vulnerable to collapse.

Labor, the largest faction in parliament, is demanding several commitments from Sharon, said Ofir Pines, a Labor representative to the talks.

Sharon must agree to dismantle some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state if Labor is to join a coalition, Pines told Israel radio.

However, Reuvin Rivlin, a Likud official, said Sharon will not agree to dismantle any of the 144 settlements, which Israel has built since seizing the Palestinian territories in 1967 and which now have about 200,000 residents.

``God forbid that we should say that a Jew who has been brought there on a mission for all of us, and with full Zionist intentions, should be evacuated,'' Rivlin told Israel radio.

Barak had said he wanted to keep about 160,000 settlers under Israeli sovereignty, but would be willing to abandon smaller, more isolated settlements as part of a peace deal.

Labor is not demanding that talks with the Palestinians produce a final peace agreement during Sharon's term, Pines added. Sharon has said he will seek a long-term interim agreement with the Palestinians, not a final settlement.

The Palestinians have demanded a Sharon government take up peace talks where they broke off under Barak, who had offered the Palestinians more land than any other Israeli leader.

However, Barak said Sharon's new government would not be bound by proposals raised in previous peace talks, which did not produce any formal agreements despite narrowing the gaps on many issues.

``Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,'' Barak said, summarizing the Israeli position in a letter Sunday to U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat left the Gaza Strip on Sunday for talks in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak.

In the Israeli political talks, a Likud representative, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, and Labor's negotiator Raanan Cohen said they believed chances were good for creation of a coalition government.

Sharon reportedly offered Barak the defense ministry post at a meeting Friday, but Barak's office said Sunday he has no intention of taking the position.

Barak announced after his loss Tuesday that he would resign from the party and drop out of active politics for now.

If Sharon cannot get Labor to join his government, he will look to more hawkish parties for support.

Meanwhile, a U.N. human rights mission began its work in Gaza, meeting with Palestinian officials.

Israel has said it would not cooperate with the mission, calling the mandate biased and unacceptable, the findings predetermined.