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Israel-Palestine
Labor Party Votes to Join Sharon Coalition
2004-12-11
Israel's dovish Labor Party voted Saturday to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling coalition, a move that makes it easier for the Israeli leader to implement his Gaza withdrawal plan next year. Yoram Dori, an adviser to Labor leader Shimon Peres, said coalition talks would begin later Saturday. Sharon needs to forge an alliance with Labor to push through his plan to pullout of the Gaza Strip next year and to prevent an early election. Sharon's hard-line Likud Party voted Thursday to open coalition talks with Labor. He invited Labor into the government early Friday. "The Labor Central Committee authorized Shimon Peres to hold talks for a broad coalition. Negotiations with Likud will begin tonight," Dori told The Associated Press. Sharon's plan to pullout of all Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next year cost him his parliamentary majority.
I'm glad Sharon was able to bring it off, and I hope he doesn't have to give too much away to Peres to get the deal to work. Leaving Gaza's the best idea he's had yet...
Posted by:Fred

#2  The thing that I read about, and the thing I am concerned about is the possibility of Hizb'Allah taking over the power vacuum in Gaza and becoming a threat to Israel's western border. It seems to me that the sooner Syria is out of the terror base business, the less influence the MMs of Iran have in either Lebanon or in this case, Gaza.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-12-11 8:52:07 PM  

#1  It's been suggested that Sharon and Peres might have reached an odd entente, both irritated with the extreme ends of their own political parties, and annoyed with the power politics played by tiny 3rd parties. This proposal is that, if the two of them broke off the middle and abandoned both the far left and the far right, the would have a huge majority of the center in a new, centrist party. No more extremists demanding and getting largesse from the government, and a stable coalition that would last a decade or two before a *reasonable* centrist alternative arose to compete with it.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2004-12-11 8:40:38 PM  

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