Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began trying yesterday to form a right-wing government after the Labor Party abandoned his ruling coalition in a bitter dispute over funding for Jewish settlements.
Sharon lost his parliamentary majority when the center-left party quit, and Israeli officials said he was trying to form a narrower alliance with far-right and religious parties that could demand a harder line against the Palestinians.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"We will continue to serve the people of Israel, even under the difficult conditions that have been created," Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar told reporters.
Labor's pullout ended a 19-month "national unity" partnership forged as a common front against a Palestinian uprising. The break-up could undermine US efforts to calm the region while it prepares for a possible war on Iraq.
"No chance," Labor's leader, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, replied when asked on Army Radio if he might change his mind about bolting from the coalition before the split becomes final late tomorrow after a 48-hour mandatory cooling-off period extended until the end of the Jewish sabbath.
Former army chief Shaul Mofaz, known for tough tactics against the Palestinians and advocating Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's expulsion, agreed to take over from Ben-Eliezer, an Israeli diplomatic source said yesterday.
Arafat responded that the appointment did not bode well for efforts to calm more than two years of Middle East violence.
"Mofaz has accepted the post of defense minister," the Israeli source said. Israeli media said the appointment must be approved by the government and then parliament, a process likely to take place in the next week.
Mofaz, army chief until July this year, employed tough tactics against the Palestinian uprising which erupted in September 2000, about halfway through his four-year tenure heading the Middle East's mightiest army.
"We did everything [to avert the break-up]," Sharon, head of the rightist Likud party, told a stormy session of parliament on Wednesday night.
After the collapse of his broad-based coalition, Sharon vowed to go on leading the country, suggesting he wanted to avoid early elections.
Israel Radio reported he had started making contacts with the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, whose seven seats in the 120-member parliament could restore Sharon's majority in the legislature.
Palestinian Cabinet member Saeb Erekat said the coalition crisis was further evidence that Israeli politics was "moving faster and faster away from an atmosphere of peace."
With the departure of the center-left Labor Party, which has 25 members in the Knesset, Sharon now controls only 55 parliamentary seats.
The crisis was precipitated by Ben-Eliezer's demands to divert funds earmarked for Jewish settlements to the poor and the elderly.
But critics inside and outside Labor said the hawkish Ben-Eliezer had latched on to the issue only to try to beat back dovish challengers leading him in opinion polls ahead of a Nov. 19 election for the party chairmanship.
Ben-Eliezer has denied the allegations.
Sharon, a long-time champion of settlement building, was in no mood to make concessions a day after a Palestinian gunman killed three settlers in the West Bank.
When last-ditch talks failed, Ben-Eliezer resigned followed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and four other ministers.
Labor, Sharon's main coalition partner, had vowed to reject the state's 2003 austerity budget unless he met demands to reallocate US$145 million in settlement funding.
The fate of 145 settlements built on occupied land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is an issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has deeply divided Israelis.
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS