Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has alienated his right-wing Likud party with plans to withdraw from Gaza, begins a new legislative session yesterday fighting for his government's survival.
Lawmakers were scheduled to vote on two motions of no confidence yesterday, the first day of Israel's winter parliamentary session. Sharon was expected to survive the votes with help from the moderate Labor Party, which is not in the coalition but supports the Gaza disengagement plan.
But Labor said it would not necessarily support Sharon on other fronts, such as domestic policy.
"There is no longer an automatic safety net," Labor legislator Dalia Itzik told Israel's Channel Two TV.
Meanwhile, Israel pressed ahead with its offensive in northern Gaza. On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinian militants.
The Gaza withdrawal was expected to be the cornerstone of Sharon's speech to parliament, the traditional address by the prime minister to open the session.
Facing protests from the opposition and members of his own party, some lawmakers said it was unlikely Sharon's government would complete its term, due to expire in November 2006.
"I don't see this government running the distance," Parliament speaker Ruby Rivlin told Israel's Army Radio on Sunday.
Opposition to the pullout is strong among Sharon's traditional supporters, including Rivlin, and his Likud party has voted twice against the evacuation.
The deep disagreements are expected to spill over onto the parliament floor, beyond usual bouts of heckling and name-calling.
"The dispute could, God forbid, come to fistfights between members, each one with deep feelings of absolute justification," Rivlin said.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
RSS