Ariel Sharon's rightist Likud party said yesterday it still hoped to form an Israeli unity government with the center-left Labor Party, despite outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak's decision to reject a role in it.
Likud said Barak's surprise decision on Tuesday to turn down an offer to be defense minister under Sharon and to quit as Labor leader could make it easier to form a broad-based government with his party.
Many Labor members had rebelled against Barak over his plan to stay on as defense minister despite his trouncing by Sharon in a Feb. 6 election. Barak has held the defense post throughout his premiership.
"The negotiations will continue with the Labor Party team on forming a unity government. The negotiations are with a party, not with a person," said Raanan Gissin, a Likud spokesman.
"Hopefully this decision has solved a problem and will make it easier to establish the government. The majority of Labor members was not against a unity government but against Barak being defense minister."
Sharon hopes that wooing Labor into a coalition will help him form a durable government that can tackle five months of Palestinian-Israeli clashes and make progress in deadlocked peace talks with the Palestinians.
Labor is expected to meet next Monday to consider whether to join the coalition. Some members still oppose joining it, despite Barak's move, and Sharon may yet have to form a narrow right-wing coalition if Labor turns him down.
In the latest violence, an 18-year-old Palestinian was killed on Tuesday when an Israeli tank shell landed on his home in the West Bank village of Beit Jala. His funeral was due to take place later yesterday.
Barak's abrupt move late on Tuesday -- he also decided to resign his seat in parliament -- was the latest of many zigzags that have astonished voters and Labor members.
Barak said after his election defeat that he was quitting as party leader, but later changed his mind and decided to lead Labor's team in negotiations with Likud.
In a letter to Sharon, Barak said he had only agreed to fill the defense post last week out of a sense of "national responsibility."
Barak also said internal party politics had forced his hand.
"For all these reasons ... I decided not to join a national unity government as defense minister or in any other post and it is my intention to leave political and diplomatic activity for a period of time -- as I originally promised," Barak wrote.
He vowed to work to a unity government but slammed Sharon for planning to include extreme right-wing parties in his coalition.
Some Labour Party members said Barak's decision could end Labour Party infighting and agreed with Likud that it could now be easier for Sharon to establish a left-right coalition. But others said Labour should still not join forces with Likud.
"Today with the difficulties that we are facing, I would like to see the Labour Party unify and work together in the opposition with people such as Ehud Barak," said outgoing justice minister Yossi Beilin, a prominent dove.
"I will fight this crazy [coalition] idea until the last possible moment," he told Israel Radio.
More violence has accompanied the political wrangling.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had opened fire on Palestinian gunmen in Beit Jala, near the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but declined to comment on any Palestinian casualties.
Palestinian civil defense officials said the teenager who died had been asleep when a tank shell hit his home. He was pulled from the debris of the three-storey building and taken to hospital, where officials said he was dead on arrival.
At least six other Palestinians were hurt in shooting that echoed throughout Jerusalem on one of the coldest nights of the year. Ten homes were damaged and another erupted in flames after being hit by shells and machine-gun fire, witnesses said.
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