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ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military mindset once again came to the fore when he stunned the world with an unexpected announcement. Like any hard-headed soldier, Sharon, who spent long years in uniform, managed the element of surprise to telling effect when he announced on November 21 that he was quitting the right-wing Likud party to form a party on his own and seek early elections. Sharon said that the new political formation that he would head would be called National Responsibility party. Addressing a press conference after the announcement, he described his initiative as the beginning of a new "liberal movement" in Israel.
Sharon called on President Moshe Katsav earlier in the day. Katsav then announced that the Knesset (Parliament) stood disbanded and elections would be held on March 28. "The Prime Minister asked me to dissolve the Knesset as it cannot function properly in its current form," he said.
Sharon's decision will transform the political landscape of Israel. The "bombshell" announcement has hit the Likud party especially hard; 14 parliamentarians have left it and joined Sharon's party. Not surprisingly, Likud leaders, especially former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reacted furiously to Sharon's manoeuvre. Sharon, he said, was a "dictator" who had abandoned the Likud party's true path. The Prime Minister believed in "one-man rule, apparently doesn't recognise democracy, and is setting up a party of puppets", he alleged. "What does it matter if the dictator has this type of smile, or that type of sense of humour?" Netanyahu told the Israeli Army Radio. "It all leads to tyranny."
Sharon's exit has resulted in a leadership race in Likud, where Netanyahu is being challenged by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Knesset member Uzi Landau.
The Centre-Left Labour party has reacted positively to Sharon's announcement. Labour politician Yitzhak Herzog, who is a Cabinet Minister, said that the fracturing of Likud would help both his party and the peace process with the Palestinians. "This development opens the door for a fascinating coalition of moderate forces after the elections," he was quoted as saying.
Israeli voters are now expected to have three choices - the right-wing Likud, Sharon's "centrist" party, and the Centre-Left Labour. The Israeli English daily Haaretz quoted Sharon's backers as saying that the new party would be a "true centrist party, from every perspective: political, economic and social".
Attacked by the extreme right-wing in the Likud for his initiative to remove the Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, Sharon said the party in its present state had lost "strategic" direction to take Israel forward. Sharon's supporters made it clear that their goal was to achieve a peace settlement with the Palestinians, resulting in the formation of a Palestinian state.
"The process clearly is a process that leads in the direction of two states," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni told Army Radio. "We will lead in the direction of two states." Finance Minister Ehud Olmert, a key Sharon supporter, said the Prime Minister wanted to see that talks with the Palestinians lead to the finalisation of Israel's international borders. Elaborating, Olmert said that Sharon's exit from Likud came out of "the desire to define the permanent borders of Israel in the framework of an agreement that is based on the recipe of the road map".
Sharon, in a televised press conference, went on to stress that Israel's recent unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip had created a historic opportunity for promoting peace. "I will not allow anyone to squander it," he said.
A day after Sharon's announcement, opinion polls showed that the Israeli public was receptive to his move. A Teleseker poll published in the newspaper Maariv showed Sharon's new party would dominate the 120-member Knesset by winning 30 seats. The Labour party, led by union leader Amir Peretz, will get 26 seats, while the Likud will win 15 seats under Netanyahu, who is expected to replace Sharon as party chief, according to the poll.
The results of a poll published in the newspaper Yediot Ahronot said Sharon's party would win 33 seats, Labour 26 and Likud 12. If the trend continues, Sharon could well emerge as Prime Minster for a third consecutive term.
PALESTINIAN leaders have been restrained in their response to the formation of the new party. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath said the Palestinians were "watching carefully the unfolding political developments to see their consequences on the peace process". Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he hoped that any new government would want to continue the negotiations. "I hope that when the dust settles, we will have a partner in Israel to go towards... a final arrangement," he said.
With elections to the Palestinian Parliament due in January and the Israeli polls concluding at the end of March, fresh negotiations are not expected before the middle of April. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that the negotiations might come to a halt on account of the two elections. "I hope that these elections will go smoothly and we can get back to pressing the parties in the peace process," he said.
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