World

Sharon Gets Opposition Backing

March 27, 2004 / 4:33 PM EST / CBS/AP

Israel's moderate opposition Labor Party backed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a crucial parliamentary vote Wednesday, a day after he was cleared of corruption charges — boosting Sharon's Gaza pullout plan.

Labor was sending signals of readiness to join Sharon's government to promote the Gaza pullout, but there was stiff opposition from party members on both sides. Also, a poll showed that the Israeli public is not behind a Sharon-Labor team.

Sharon lost his parliamentary majority while ramming the Gaza withdrawal proposal through his Cabinet, dismissing one pro-settlement faction, while part of another one walked out in protest.

The plan calls for removing all 7,500 Jewish settlers and the military from Gaza by the end of 2005. Also, four small settlements from the northern West Bank would be evacuated.

Sharon and his Likud Party had for decades championed settlement construction. Sharon's sudden about face, favoring removal of settlements in Gaza and the West Bank for the first time since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Mideast war, angered his own power base but won praise from his parliamentary opponents in Labor.

To shore up Sharon's coalition, Labor pledged to abstain in votes of no confidence in the parliament, keeping the government afloat though it lacks a majority.

On Wednesday, Labor took its backing a step further, abstaining on an opposition move to dissolve the parliament and call elections. The proposal was voted down 53-13 with 15 abstentions. Traditionally, all opposition factions vote in favor of such bills.

Under Israeli law, a motion to call elections cannot be filed again for six months, removing some of the pressure on the shaky government, though it could still be vulnerable to no-confidence motions.

Labor had said it would not consider joining Sharon's government until the attorney general ruled on a bribery case involving the premier. On Tuesday, the case was closed for lack of evidence. Afterward, Labor Party leader Shimon Peres hinted strongly that he wants to guide his party back into the government.

"The Labor Party has only one consideration — what will promote peace, what will hasten the evacuation of the Gaza Strip," Peres said.

However, some Labor lawmakers are opposed, preferring to try to topple the government. Sharon and Labor teamed up during Sharon's first term as premier from 2001 to 2003, but the government broke apart over the issue of funding settlements.

Also, Likud opponents of the Gaza pullout plan oppose bringing in their ideological opponents from Labor, which favors evacuating most of the settlements in the West Bank as well as the ones in Gaza. Sharon's plan is to trade the small Gaza settlements for a strengthened hold over large parts of the West Bank — provoking stiff Palestinian criticism.

A poll published Wednesday in the Yediot Ahronot daily showed that Israelis are doubtful about reconstituting the Labor-Likud team.

According to the Dahaf poll, only 37 percent supported Labor's entering the government, while 54 percent were opposed. The poll questioned 500 Israeli adults and quoted a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Also Wednesday:

A U.N.-appointed expert said that he has warned Caterpillar Inc. that Israel's use of bulldozers to destroy West Bank orchards could make the company an accomplice in the violation of basic human rights of the Palestinians.

Israel contractors were forced to halt construction of a section of a West Bank separation barrier after clashes erupted between soldiers and hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators. Witnesses said soldiers fired tear gas, but no injuries were reported. Israel says the barrier is necessary to stop Palestinian suicide bombers, but Palestinians complain it dips deep into the West Bank.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, two 15-year-old Palestinian girls were arrested for allegedly planning to carry out suicide attacks with their fathers.

Also in Nablus, Israeli troops damaged two mosques and a church during a search for fugitives, Palestinians said. The military said soldiers set off a "controlled explosion" to remove a roadblock, since the road was too narrow for a bulldozer. It said there was no intention to damage religious sites.

In the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli troops hunting for fugitives killed a Palestinian militant who operated for both Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Also, Palestinians said, a bus driver nearby was shot and died later in a hospital.

Knesset (parliament) speaker Reuven Rivlin directed female Knesset employees and parliamentary aides to wear more modest and less provocative clothing. He pointed out that other legislative bodies around the world, including the U.S. Congress, have dress codes.

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