Arafat Gets Stamp Of Approval

In a boost for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian parliament on Tuesday approved his new 19-member Cabinet.

Arafat won the vote comfortably, 56-18, despite efforts by dissenters to carry out more sweeping political changes and limit his authority.

After the vote, Arafat said: "We are proud of these results."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a political crisis of his own, with the moderate Labor party poised to quit the coalition. A senior legislator allied with Sharon said Tuesday he believed new elections were inevitable.

The growing dispute over settlements is part of what is threatening Sharon's coalition government.

Israeli troops early Tuesday evacuated 20 Jewish settlers and structures from an illegal outpost near the West Bank city of Nablus where soldiers and settlers had frequently clashed over attempts to dismantle it.

The soldiers arrived before daybreak, calling on the settlers to leave the outpost known as Havat Gilad, the army said. The settlers complied and watched quietly from the side as the temporary structures that had been put up in recent weeks were demolished.

Last month, parliament forced Arafat's Cabinet to resign amid complaints of growing official corruption and mismanagement. It was seen as the toughest internal challenge to Arafat since he returned from exile in 1994 to take the helm of the Palestinian Authority.

The political crisis was interrupted by Israel's 10-day siege of Arafat's headquarters during which Israeli troops demolished most buildings in the compound in response to suicide attacks on Israelis.

The raid help boost Arafat's standing. After Israeli troops withdrew, Arafat met repeatedly with Fatah leaders to get their support for new appointments. In meetings with rebellious legislators, Arafat said a vote against his Cabinet would be a show of support for Israel and the United States which want to see the Palestinian leader sidelined.

In Tuesday's parliament session, several lawmakers said they would not support the new Cabinet because it had few new faces and several ministers suspected of corruption remained in their posts.

At one point, Arafat lashed out a critic who said the new Cabinet would not lead the Palestinians out of their crisis.

Meanwhile, the strange political marriage between Israel's leading hawks and doves is heading for divorce, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

Sharon has said he will try to form a narrow coalition of right-wing and religious parties if his junior partner, the moderate Labor party, votes against the 2003 state budget Wednesday, as threatened.

Labor believes too much money is going to Jewish settlements. Sharon responded that if Labor votes against the budget, he'll kick the party out of the coalition.

But Sharon's coalition chairman, Zeev Boim, said Tuesday that "the more realistic scenario is that there will be no choice for the prime minister but...to seek early elections within 90 days." That would be a year early.

Sharon's Cabinet secretary, Gideon Saar, meanwhile, said that a new U.S.-backed peace plan in its current form is not acceptable because it is based, in part, on an Arab proposal calling for an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied lands and affirming the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have expressed reservations about the new plan formulated by the so-called Quartet of international mediators — the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union. However, Saar's comments marked the first time an Israeli official said outright the proposal was unacceptable without major changes.

The Havat Gilad outpost had been the scene of violent scuffles between the soldiers and settlers in the army's previous attempts this month to remove mobile homes at the site. Settlers had established the outpost, without government permission, in memory of a settler killed nearby in May 2001.

A settler spokesman, Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, suggested that settlers would return to Havat Gilad.

"We will find the way and the time to go back to Havat Gilad in an honorable manner," Mor-Yosef told Israel Radio.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer vowed earlier this month to remove about 30 illegal outposts set up in recent years throughout the West Bank by Jewish settlers. Several of the outposts have been dismantled without incident.

Settlers have set up the outposts at dozens of points throughout the West Bank in recent months in reaction to attacks against settlers by Palestinian militants, demanding the army guard the areas to prevent future attacks.