Coalition partner's pullout rattles Israeli govt
Israel's hawkish Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned yesterday and pulled his party out of government in protest at renewed peace talks with the Palestinians, rattling Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition.
The departure of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party's 11 MPs leaves Olmert's coalition intact with 67 seats in the 120-member parliament, but could increase the pressure on other coalition partners to follow suit.
"I informed Olmert that we were quitting the coalition and the government," Lieberman told a press conference in parliament.
Lieberman's abrupt resignation came two days after Israeli and Palestinian negotiators officially launched talks on the thorniest issues of the Middle East conflict, including Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.
The negotiations followed US President George W. Bush visit to the region last week during which he predicted that the two sides would sign a peace treaty before he left office in January 2009.
Lieberman, who joined Olmert's government in October 2006, just two months after the end of Israel's month-long war against the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, said the peace talks were futile.
"I said that if there are negotiations on the core issues we will not remain in the coalition," the 49-year-old politician said.
"Therefore things seem very clear to me," he said. "Everyone knows that this process will lead nowhere... the principle of land for peace is a fatal mistake that is hard to understand."
Olmert's office said in a statement following the announcement that "there is no alternative to serious peace negotiations... The prime minister is determined to continue the talks which hold the only real chance to assure Israel's security and peace."
Yisrael Beitenu's joining the government helped Olmert fend off massive pressure to quit over the Lebanon war's inconclusive outcome, and its exit was expected to put pressure on the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to also pull out.
Without the support of Shas's 12 lawmakers, Olmert's coalition would be six seats short of the necessary 61 MPs to give it a majority in parliament.
Shas chairman and Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai has said that the right-to-centre party would immediately quit the government if peace talks touched on the issue of Jerusalem.
For Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party whose leader is Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the issue of Jerusalem is key as the Holy City is the site of Judaism's most sacred site.
But the party also has a motivation to stay. By remaining in the cabinet it retains access to funds with which it finances social programmes that provide it with most of its popular support.
Lieberman's departure also weakens the premier ahead of the January 30 release of a final report into the political and military leadership's conduct during the 2006 34-day war.
This is expected to be highly critical of Olmert and many here speculate that Defence Minister Ehud Barak, leader of the centre-left Labour that is the premier's main coalition partner with 19 MPs, could also quit in its wake.
Some analysts suggest Lieberman's departure will not have much effect, as Olmert can bring in the United Torah Judaism with six MPs or the left-wing Meretz party with five lawmakers.
Lieberman has sparked outrage among Israel's Arab minority with some of his past statements, including a call for land and population exchanges to create homogeneous Jewish and Palestinian states, and for the execution of Israeli Arab MPs who dealt with Hamas, which Israeli considers a terrorist organization.
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