Israel, U.S. Vow No Change In Policy

The Bush administration says political uncertainty in Israel will not cause a change in U.S. support for Palestinian statehood or other goals that are part of a peace plan for the region.

But analysts at private think tanks said the departure of the center-left Labor Party from the Israeli government could result in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon taking a tougher approach toward the Palestinians and making the peace process more difficult.

Palestinians agree.

"What we are seeing will reflect negatively on everybody in the Middle East," said Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

However, Sharon says he will not change the basic policies of his government in an effort to woo extreme right parties into his coalition.

The moderate Labor Party, the largest faction in Sharon's coalition, quit the government this week over a budget dispute. That left the government without a majority and makes it vulnerable to a no-confidence vote in parliament that could bring down the government and force new elections.

Sharon is looking to small, far-right parties in an attempt to maintain a viable coalition, but he said he would not change his positions to accommodate them.

"I am on the way to forming a government with a different make-up," he told the Maariv newspaper. He stressed that the "policy lines will remain exactly the same policy lines and its goals won't change: war on terror, renewing political negotiations and reaching an agreement."

Sharon's coalition now has only 55 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

One candidate for inclusion is the far-right National Union-Israel Beiteinu party, which has seven seats, enough to restore the government's majority.

The National Union party opposes negotiations with the Palestinians and favors annexing the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands the Palestinians want for a future state. Some party members support "transferring" or expelling the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli newspapers reported that Sharon talked to U.S. administration officials on Thursday, and the Israeli leader gave assurances he would not make major policy changes.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to send David Satterfield, a deputy, to the region shortly. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns has just returned.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, declaring his country Israel's best friend in Europe, endorsed the continuing U.S. diplomatic campaign and the goal of setting up a Palestinian state in 2005.

Fischer, in a meeting Thursday with reporters, disputed the widespread view that the Bush administration was not playing an active role.

The White House declined, meanwhile, to assess the impact of the Labor Party's departure from Sharon's government on peacemaking prospects.

"I'm not going to say one way or another, whether it complicates it or speeds it up," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "Democratic governments go through these things."

At the same time, Boucher said, "Our goals have not changed...Our belief in what needs to be done has not changed."

The road map prescribed by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia seeks to end violence and terror in the region, end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, reform Palestinian institutions and conclude an overall settlement within three years, Boucher said.

The spokesman did not say whether the United States was demanding Israel give up all the land the Arabs lost in the 1967 Six-Day war.

Edward S. Walker, president of the Middle East Institute, said Israel's political problems would have an impact on peacemaking prospects because Sharon will turn more to the right and take more aggressive measures toward the Palestinians.

Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, said this would create more anger in the Arab world.

"The road map has to be thought through again," Walker said. "There are too many obstacles. I can't see it going anywhere with Israel and I am not sure of the Palestinians, either."

Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor and an analyst at the Brookings Institution, said that even without the collapse of the government, chances for implementing the road map any time soon were small.

"Most people see it as a limited exercise, and the public opinion sees it as an attempt to pacify the region in preparation for the war with Iraq," Telhami said in a telephone interview from Haifa, Israel.

"The collapse of the Israeli government isn't going to help, but I don't think the chances of movement were high before that either," he said.

Israel's relations with the Palestinians could slip, though, as Sharon will try to show policy differences with the departing Labor Party by taking measures in Palestinian-held areas, Telhami said.

The Labor Party leader, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, has left his post as defense minister, and Sharon has offered the position to former army chief of staff Shaul Mofaz. He has a reputation as a hard-liner and oversaw the army's crackdown against the Palestinian uprising for most of the past two years.

Mofaz also has advocated exiling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Ben-Eliezer was considered more moderate as defense minister.

Ben-Eliezer expressed no regrets for quitting the government, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. At a farewell ceremony, Ben-Eliezer said Israel needs to find a diplomatic way out of two years of conflict with the Palestinians.

"We have to search day and night for a political solution," he said in Hebrew. At the same time, he said Israel must win the war on terrorism so it can enter negotiations from a position of strength.

Samuel Lewis, U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985, doubted the United States and its partners in what is called "the Quartet" can make progress while Israel goes through a period of political struggle, one that probably will wind up with a right-wing government.

Nor, Lewis said in an interview, is headway likely until the Palestinians sort out their leadership.

"You have leadership blocks to whatever diplomatic efforts we try to pursue," Lewis said. "But I think it is important to pursue it without any illusions."