Israel's parliament removed the last legislative obstacle before implementation of this summer's pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank, easily passing the tardy state budget and saving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government from collapse.
The vote late on Tuesday was 58 to 36 with one abstention, a mis-leadingly wide margin for a government battered by opposition to the pullout plan. If the budget had not passed by today, Sharon would have had to resign, delaying or scuttling the withdrawal. Parliamentary opponents of the pullout, even in Sharon's own party, voted against the budget with that goal in mind.
But Sharon pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in special spending to three parties to gain their votes, ensuring a majority.
PHOTO: AP
On Monday, the parliament rebuffed efforts to call a referendum, which would have delayed the pullout for months and might have brought down the government.
With the end of the parliamentary maneuvering, settlers and their backers pledged to take to the streets with their struggle against the plan to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank.
Security officials fear increasingly desperate settlers will resort to violence, including an attempt to attack a disputed holy site in Jerusalem or assassinate Sharon.
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said he picked up a warning that extremists among the settlers might open fire on soldiers who come to evacuate them.
In recent weeks, several hundred people have moved to Gaza to bolster opposition.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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