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ARIEL BUILDS HIS GOV’T ; PRO-SETTLER PARTY ADDED TO REGIME

By
Uri Dan
Published Feb. 25, 2003, 5:00 a.m. ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hammered out a deal to form a new government yesterday – bringing into his coalition one moderate party and one that champions Jewish settlers.

The agreement means Sharon will officially begin his second term Thursday, his 75th birthday, when he presents his alliance to the Knesset parliament.

Sharon’s coalition will have a razor-thin majority, 61 of 120 Knesset seats, after he convinced the centrist Shinui Party and rightist National Religious Party to join his Likud bloc.

Sharon, who had sought to form a broad coalition, rejected an alliance with two ultra-Orthodox parties that had played king maker in previous Israeli elections and failed to come to agreement with the main opposition party, the dovish Labor Party.

Palestinian officials called Sharon’s coalition a pro-settler alliance that would escalate violence.

But Sharon assured his partners he intends to pursue President Bush’s formula for peace which includes creating a Palestinian state.

Also critical was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the spurned ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, who said Sharon will lead a “garbage can government.”

Yosef bitterly opposes the Shinui Party, the big surprise in last month’s national elections, when it ran third behind the Likud and Labor parties, on a platform opposing concessions to the ultra-Orthodox factions.

Shinui head Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, who will be deputy prime minister and justice minister in the new government, said yesterday, “I am not against the Orthodox. I am against those who turn religion into politics and business.”

SHARON’S NEW ALLIES

Key blocs in Israeli Prime Minister Sharon’s new government

Likud Party – Sharon’s power base. Traditionally the more conservative of Israel’s two largest parties.

Shinui Party – Centrist, secular group now Israel’s third largest party. It opposes influence of ultra-Orthodox parties and wants to strip them of power.

National Religious Party – Champion of Jewish settlements in West Bank and Gaza Strip and opponent of a Palestinian state.