World

Israel On Track For New Government

April 27, 2006 / 8:41 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Israel's centrist Kadima Party reached a coalition deal on Thursday with the left-center Labor Party, giving interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a government that will back his plan to draw Israel's final borders by 2010, Kadima Party officials said.

Olmert's Kadima Party won a March election, but does not have enough seats in the 120-seat parliament to rule alone. The party reached a deal Wednesday with the Pensioners' Party, and is expected to also bring in the more hawkish ultra-Orthodox Shas movement.

The formal signing ceremony followed weeks of negotiations following Kadima's narrow victory in March 28 elections. The two parties agree on the West Bank redeployment but haggled over economic issues and division of Cabinet portfolios.

In other developments:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said he would contact Israeli leaders with an offer to restart peace talks after they form a new government. "We hope that they will be positive," Abbas told reporters in the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

Iran has received a first batch of BM-25 surface-to-surface missiles that put European countries within firing range, Israel's military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, was quoted as saying in an Israeli newspaper Thursday. The missiles, purchased from North Korea, have a range of 1,500 miles and are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, Haaretz reported.

Israeli aircraft fired missiles at two cars in Gaza packed with rockets on Thursday, hitting one of the cars and killing one Islamic Jihad militant and critically wounding another. It's reported the destroyed vehicle had been outfitted as a quick-escape mobile rocket launcher.

Life was slowly returning to normal in Dahab, Egypt, scene of three bombings earlier this week that killed more than 20 people in the Red Sea resort town. Restaurants, even the Al Capone, where one of the bombs went off, were reopening. And two Swedes who met just three weeks ago in Stockholm planned to proceed with the wedding that had been scheduled to take place Monday in Dahab until the bombings.

Peretz is expected to be defense minister in the new government. The ex-union chief, whose main mission has been to promote social issues, does not share the strong security background of past defense ministers, most of whom are former army generals.

Critics say Peretz is not suitable for the job, especially at a time when Israel is dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated statements that Israel should be destroyed. But supporters say that it could be good for Israel's security establishment to have a civilian in charge.

Labor will also get the education and agriculture ministries, as well as four other Cabinet posts, officials said.

Israeli security officials confirmed the Haaretz report about the Iranian missiles.

Yadlin has warned of the new Iranian missiles in several recent interviews to the media. Iran already has missiles capable of reaching Israel, but the BM-25 missiles are a significant upgrade over its existing top of the line missiles — the Shihab-4 and Shihab-3.

Those missiles spurred Israel to develop its Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile system, which is can intercept the Iranian missiles.

Israeli concerns have been heightened in recent months by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls to wipe Israel "off the map."

Israel's Ynet news Web site reported that the Palestinian car destroyed had been modified for use as a mobile rocket launcher. The vehicle allowed the militants to make a quick getaway after firing missiles, a military source told Ynet.

It was the first time the army was able to hit such a mobile launcher.

Pillars of black and white smoke billowed from the destroyed vehicle as rescue workers removed burned and dismembered bodies from the car.

Israel has pledged to end the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, but is reluctant to launch an invasion into the coastal area it withdrew from in August. The homemade rockets are highly inaccurate, but at times have killed people and damaged buildings.

The new Hamas-led government has said it will not arrest the militants launching the rockets or take other steps to halt the fire.

Hamas' stringent stance has added to Israel's ire over the Islamic group's rule. Israel has declared the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority an enemy entity and cut off all political and financial ties, withholding $55 million in monthly tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians.

The United States and other Western countries have also slapped economic sanctions on the Palestinians, demanding Hamas recognize Israel, accept past Israeli-Palestinian peace deals and renounce violence.

Hamas has so far rejected the demands, but could fold under the financial pressure. It has been unable to pay salaries to 165,000 government employees as a result of the sanctions.

Islamic Jihad vowed to take revenge for Thursday's missile strike.

"God willing our reprisal is coming and it is going to be like air shaking," said spokesman Abu Ahmad. "We are going to shake the air under their feet. They had experienced us in Tel Aviv and more is coming."

Islamic Jihad, a small group with ties to Iran and Syria, claimed responsibility for last week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed nine and wounded dozens.

During more than five years of fighting, Israel has killed dozens of militants in targeted airstrikes. The attacks also have killed or wounded dozens of civilians.