Housing Minister Effie Eitam and a second official from the pro-settler National Religious Party (NRP) resigned from the government yesterday in protest over the Cabinet's approval of a Gaza withdrawal plan.
The departure of the NRP would deprive Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of his parliamentary majority, but not bring him down.
Sharon's government has been in limbo since the Cabinet's historic vote on Sunday to pull out of Gaza by the end of next year. The decision could lead to new political alliances, or even elections, in the coming months.
The government survived two no-confidence motions in parliament on Monday night. NRP legislators were absent from the floor during the vote, a sign of the party's indecision.
Eitam and Yitzhak Levy, a deputy minister, had said they could not sit in a Cabinet that intended to pull down settlements, party sources said.
Zevulun Orlev, the labor and welfare minister who leads a more moderate wing of the party, planned to stay in the Cabinet, the sources said.
If the party pulled out of the coalition, it would leave Sharon with 55 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Sharon would likely court Labor, his main coalition partner in his first term, to replace the NRP, though the party is divided over whether to join.
For now, Labor is providing a "safety net" for Sharon in parliament. In Monday's votes, Labor legislators abstained, allowing the motions to be defeated.
"We will decide from day to day," said party leader Shimon Peres.
In Sunday's meeting, the Cabinet approved a Gaza withdrawal in principle, but in a nod to hardliners decided that no settlements would be removed without another vote, expected to be held by March 1. Meanwhile, the government will lay the groundwork for the settlement removals.
Sharon's ``disengagement plan,'' includes the removal of all 21 Gaza settlements and four small West Bank settlements.
Meanwhile, Israel plans to shut down a major industrial zone on its border with the Gaza Strip where thousands of Palestinians work, a senior political said yesterday.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying the decision to close the Erez zone and relocate its factories to southern Israel followed government approval of the Gaza pullout plan
The Erez plants have been a rare example of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and some 4,000 Palestinians are employed there.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS