The ultra-orthodox Shas Party said on Friday it would not join a government that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is trying to assemble. If that decision stands, it will be a major blow to her efforts to become prime minister and avoid early elections.
At the same time, Livni reached an agreement in principle with the left-wing Meretz Party to join her government and was negotiating with another ultra-orthodox party, Yahadut Hatorah. Together they would make up for the loss of Shas and give her a majority in the 120-seat parliament.
Shas, the fourth-largest party and part of the departing government, said it had failed to reach agreement with Livni over the two issues that matter most to it — increasing child allowances for large families and a promise to keep Jerusalem entirely under Israeli sovereignty and off the negotiating table with the Palestinians.
While Shas spokesmen said the decision to stay out was final, others suggested that the move was a risky negotiating tactic that could still be reversed.
“I do not see this as the end of the story with Shas,” said Otniel Schneller, a parliament member from Livni’s Kadima Party, in a telephone interview, making a point echoed by others.
“I think we can still find a creative formula for Jerusalem and bring them back,” he said.
Meanwhile Meretz, on the left, has been in talks all week with Livni.
“We decided that we are in the government and now are setting about writing the agreement,” Avshalom Vilan, a parliament member from Meretz, said by telephone. “I believe Livni will try to build a government with what she has rather than go to early elections.”
So far, Livni has a clear deal only with the Labor Party, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Barak wants as broad a government as possible because he worries that a narrow one will not last and will lead inevitably to early elections in which the opposition Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is ahead in the polls.
An associate of Barak said he would be willing to move forward if both Meretz and Yahadut Hatorah signed on, bringing the governing majority to 66.
“If she will have 66 members, Barak won’t be an obstacle, though he is not excited about this,” the associate said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Livni announced last week she would decide today whether to try to form a government or move toward early elections. Tomorrow is the official opening of the parliamentary session, and if she does not have a government by then, the departing prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is leaving to fight corruption charges, will make the day’s major speech, not she.
Her aides say she considers this both politically and symbolically highly undesirable.
At the same time, Livni, who has risen rapidly in Israeli politics on a reputation of honesty and lack of corruption, is losing some of her luster. Her efforts to form a government have not gone well and have shown her horse-trading over budgets and positions.
Nahum Barnea, the country’s top political columnist, wrote in Friday’s issue of Yediot Aharonot newspaper an article headlined “Tzipi in Wonderland,” in which he listed the political debate over the errors she was perceived to have committed.
They included having involved herself too personally in the negotiations, having mishandled Barak and having relied on lieutenants viewed as insufficiently seasoned.
He said: “She has innocence and she has love of the homeland, in the good old sense of the word. But in the cruel game that she has chosen to participate, innocence is at most grounds for leniency. Livni paid too much for too little. She paid in hard cash: in money and in leadership.”
The Barak associate criticized Livni’s handling of the negotiations, saying: “She has a tendency to impose deadlines when they are not necessary. Why Sunday? Why not Wednesday? Sometimes, you just have to negotiate.”
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS