A powerful Israeli opposition leader reached agreement with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon late Saturday to support the state budget, removing the last major legislative hurdle to Sharon's plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip this summer.
The support from the opposition Shinui Party would ensure Sharon a majority for his budget. Were Sharon to fail to pass his budget by March 31, parliament would automatically be dissolved and new elections would have to be held within three months, delaying and possibly derailing the planned Gaza withdrawal.
Although a majority in parliament has repeatedly supported the Gaza pullout, Sharon's budget faced the combined opposition of rebel lawmakers within his own badly riven Likud Party who are opposed to the planned Gaza withdrawal and other legislators who do not like the budget for fiscal reasons.
But late Saturday night, Sharon met with Joseph Lapid, leader of the opposition Shinui Party, and reached an agreement sealing his party's support for the budget, Lapid told reporters.
"We did it mainly because we didn't want to halt the peace process and disengagement," Lapid said.
Sharon spokesman Assaf Shariv confirmed the agreement, but was cautious about declaring the plan to withdraw from all of Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank a done deal.
"In politics you never know what can happen," he said.
One-third of Sharon's 40-member Likud faction has broken with him over his "disengagement" plan and refused to back him on the budget. On Wednesday, he rebuffed their tit-for-tat offer to vote for the spending plan if he would support a national referendum on the withdrawal, which he has repeatedly rejected as a delaying tactic.
Many Israeli political commentators believed Sharon would get his budget approved, but not before considerable last-minute political horse-trading. "No one has an interest in going to elections," said Yoram Gabbay, a former senior Finance Ministry official.
According to Lapid, Sharon agreed at their meeting Saturday night to put 700 million shekels (US$160 million) from the budget at Shinui's disposal for distribution to its pet causes, including universities, science, arts and conservation. In exchange, Shinui, which has 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset, would back the spending plan, Lapid said.
In the months Sharon has been trying to marshal majority backing for the budget, he has lobbied unlikely political allies who object to the austerity budget on various grounds.
Arab lawmakers have asked for more money for their communities in exchange for abstaining in the budget vote. The dovish Yahad party has signaled it would suppress its distaste for a budget it regards as hurting the underclass in the interest of keeping the Gaza pullout on track.
The government also has tried to court the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which wants more money for social spending, but is not counting on the faction's support, a government official said.
Sharon decided to focus instead on the fiercely secular Shinui, which pulled out of the government last year after Sharon yielded to the budgetary demands of another religious party.
Shinui was considered a weak link in the budget's opposition because it strongly supports the pullout.
"There is nothing we want more," Shinui lawmaker Ehud Rassabi said earlier this week.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS