-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.arabia.com/afp/news/mideast/article/english/0,10846,200823,00.html
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Likud party defies Sharon, says no to a future Palestinian state
May 13, 2002, 04:30 AM
TEL AVIV (AFP) - Israel's right-wing Likud party voted a resounding no to a
Palestinian state in brazen defiance of their leader Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
already politically vulnerable after his army put on hold a threatened military strike
on
the Gaza Strip.
The hardline stance by Likud's 2,600 person central committee late Sunday was sure
to damage Sharon's ability to direct Israel's fragile national unity government, torn
between right and left.
Likud ministers are now bound to block any peace initiative that could lead to the
establishment of a Palestinian state.
Sharon warned the crushing vote would damage Israel's vital ties with its top ally the
United States, which advocates the establishment of a Palestinian state and has
exerted heavy pressure on Sharon to curb Israel's military forays in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
"I respect all democratic decisions of the central committee, but I will continue to
lead
the country according to the principles that I have always held: security for Israel
and
aspirations for peace," Sharon declared after his party's stunning snub of his
leadership.
Sharon was feeling the heat from former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, his rival for
power, who engineered Sharon's humiliation by the Likud, just as the White House
had started to demand Sharon move the peace process forward.
Sharon, a hardline former general, first tried to head off Netanyahu's manoeuver with
his own motion to stop the vote. But the party rejected his motion by 59 percent.
In a sign of US influence, the army began Sunday standing down reservists called up
for an operation against the largely Gaza-based Islamic group Hamas, which claimed
Tuesday's deadly suicide bombing outside Tel Aviv, state radio said.
The report was the latest indication the Jewish state had put on hold the threatened
attack in retaliation for the pool hall blast that killed 16 Israelis and wounded
another
55.
Sharon, who was having talks in Washington with US President George W. Bush just
as the explosion went off, cut short a US trip and flew home vowing to avenge the
deaths. But the tough talk soon became muted.
A Sharon spokesman denied the reports that Israel's decision had been made under
heavy pressure from Washington, which wanted to keep chances for peace talks
alive.
But David Maguen, head of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense
committee, told state radio the decision was "part of a political calculation."
"Israel is reaping the results of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent visit to
Washington and there were very positive developments, particularly at Sharm el-
Sheikh."
He was referring to Saturday's summit of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian
President Hafez al-Assad and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz
that ended with a new appeal for peace.
The three key Arab leaders "restated the Arabs' sincere determination to achieve
peace and their rejection of all forms of violence," according to a statement issued
after the gathering.
But Sunday's political bust up in Israel threatened to dash any fresh momentum for
Middle East peace.
Before the Likud vote, King Abdullah II of Jordan said: "It would be an extremely
negative reaction, because what we're talking about is a crisis of violence that
neither
side can get themselves out of."
Leading Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat slammed the right-wing Israeli Likud
party's landslide rejection.
"What we have seen tonight is a major and severe blow to all efforts being made to
revive the peace process," Erakat told CNN.
"I hope this vote will be an eye opener for President Bush who calls for the
establishment of a Palestinian state," he said, adding it showed "what kind of people
we are dealing with in the Likud party and the Israeli government."
The revival of Israel's peace movement had also piled pressure on Sharon's brittle
coalition government.
More than 60,000 people demonstrated Saturday in Tel Aviv to demand an end to
the occupation of Palestinian territories in Israel's largest peace rally since the
latest
conflict erupted 19 months ago.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, meanwhile, told the Italian newspaper La
Repubblica that a proposed peace conference could be held in June, possibly in Italy
or Turkey.
In Bethlehem, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos I celebrated the first mass to be held
inside the sixth-century Nativity Church complex after Friday's end to the 39-day
standoff between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen.
But politics also weighed at the holy site as a senior clergyman celebrating a special
mass at an adjoining church blasted Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory as
"the root of evil" in the Middle East.
"As long as the root of evil is there, the violence will stay. The root of evil is the
Israeli
occupation," the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Michel Sabbah, told the
mass to reconsecrate the Sainte-Catherine church.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer warned on Sunday that Israel would
take action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip if the militant movement continued to
perpetrate attacks on Israel.
"Gaza is the Hamas capital, and sooner or later they must understand that we will
reach every one of them unless they change their direction," Ben Eliezer told CNN.
© 2001 AFP
End<{{{
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