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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Former IDF chief Mofaz to be next defense minister



Simon
31-10-02, 13:29
w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m


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PM aide: Former IDF chief Mofaz to be next defense minister
Former IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz has accepted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer to serve as defense minister, a Sharon aide said Thursday.

The post became vacant after the Labor Party, headed by Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, left the government Wednesday and all six Labor ministers submitted their resignations.

Asked whether Sharon asked Mofaz to be defense minister and whether Mofaz had accepted, Sharon aide Arnon Perlman said: "Yes."

Perlman said he did not know if a report in Yedioth Ahronoth was correct in its report that the appointment would be brought for Knesset approval Monday.

"I don't know when or what the procedures are," he said.

The outgoing defense minister praised his replacement Thursday, but cautioned that political experience, which Mofaz lacks, was vital.

"I think that Mofaz should first go through an intermediate period, be a member of Knesset, train to be a minister," he said in an interview to Army Radio.

"In this role such as this it is very important that [he is] defense minister and not chief of staff," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio. "He was a very good chief of staff, but... to enter the civilian world of politics, you need experience."

Report: No talks with National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu, yet
Army Radio on Thursday quoted sources close to the prime minister as saying that at present Sharon has no intention of holding talks with the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu on the faction joining the government.

There has been speculation, however, that the party was among the candidates for being included in the new government, despite claims by party leader Avigdor Lieberman that his faction has no intention of joining and would instead try to topple the government.

But some voices within the National Union-Yisrael Beitenu amalgam are calling for serious consideration of the option of joining a narrow government led by Sharon. This would govern the country for a year and fashion a diplomatic policy different from that followed up to now
by the unity government. MK Benny Elon is among those advocating this option.

Report: Peres rejected offer to join new government
Foreign Minister and Labor Party veteran Shimon Peres has rejected an offer by representatives of Sharon to join his new government, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Sharon's aides were busy contacting far-right parties as soon as Wednesday night in a bid to cobble together a narrow coalition, only hours after Labor's ministers handed in their resignation over the budget dispute, effectively bringing an end to the 20-month-old national unity government.

Shortly after Defense Minister and Labor Chairman Ben-Eliezer handed in his resignation, the Knesset nevertheless approved the first reading of the 2003 state budget - 67 to 45 - with the help of parties outside the coalition.

Ben-Eliezer's resignation came as a last-ditch meeting in the Knesset with Sharon aimed at finalizing a compromise deal to stave off Labor's threatened departure from the government, ended in a shouting match.

During a speech before the Knesset plenum, Ben-Eliezer explained why he decided to vote against the budget: "We have received many promises, but nothing concrete, therefore I recommended that Labor vote against budget."

"We have been quiet until now because we preferred unity, but now there is no choice but to take from settlements," Ben-Eliezer said, referring to his demand that $145 million in funding to the settlements be reallocated to the poor development towns.

Addressing the Knesset after Ben-Eliezer, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon slammed Ben-Eliezer: "In this fateful hour the Israeli economy is under scrutiny by the world and all of us in the coalition and the opposition must vote for the budget," Sharon said, referring to fears in Israel that the political instability would lead to the country's credit rating being lowered.

"Over this you are breaking up the national unity government?" asked a clearly exasperated Sharon.

Toward mid-afternoon, it appeared that a compromise deal had been worked out over Labor's demand that funding to settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip be reallocated to the weaker sectors of society. Labor had also been demanding that more funds be allocated to students and pensioners.

While Labor's departure from the national unity government will not topple Sharon immediately, it will force him to rely on the far-right, or ultimately call early elections.

Despite Labor's demands, Cabinet Secretary Gidon Sa'ar, a close aide to Sharon, had said earlier Wednesday that the prime minister would brook no changes to the 2003 budget until after the Knesset had voted on the first reading.

Earlier Wednesday, Likud and Labor figures had joined forces to delay the vote in the Knesset plenum in the hope that a compromise formula could be found.

Originally scheduled for 11:30 A.M., the vote was pushed back to 4:00 P.M., and then 6:00 P.M., as a result of the behind-the-scenes wrangling aimed at finding a compromise solution to defuse the crisis.

Throughout the day, mediators Ram Caspi and Yaakov Neeman - both lawyers, and the latter a former finance minister - had been in contact with Sharon and Ben-Eliezer in an ultimately vain attempt to head off the coalition break-up. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was also intimately involved in the efforts to save the unity coalition.

Interviewed after the talks collapsed, Neeman appeared to pin the blame on Ben-Eliezer, telling Israel Radio that while Peres had made a "supreme effort" to keep the government together, the Labor leader "decided he did not want to continue with the national unity government," even though "all his demands were met."

Since the crisis erupted last week, Likud members have blamed Ben-Eliezer of trying to create an alibi for leaving the government in a bid to boost his flagging fortunes ahead of a leadership primary next month.

The Labor leader trails his two more-dovish challengers, MK Haim Ramon and Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna, in the polls, and might be hoping that by bolting the government over settlements, he might be able to win over some of their voters.

While Sharon aides said Wednesday night he planned to set up a narrow-based government, the prime minister will be acutely cognizant of the fact that the far-right parties on whom he will be dependent, have been demanding that the government step up military action against the Palestinians even further. This would almost certainly put Sharon on a collision course with Israel's closest ally, the United States.

By Yossi Verter and Gideon Alon, Ha'aretz Correspondents, Ha'aretz Service and Agencies