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Key to coalition is Sharansky

By Steve Rodan
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, May 19, 1999

JERUSALEM (Middle East Newsline) -- The key to Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak's coalition is Natan Sharansky.

Sharansky's Yisrael B'Aliya is expected to be wooed by the Labor Party to become the only party in the outgoing Likud-led government to join the Barak coalition. The seven seats of Sharansky's Yisrael B'Aliya Party would allow the Labor Party to achieve a Knesset majority without seeking the Likud, the Orthodox Shas Party.

The temptation for Sharansky is great, despite his pledge to enter only a national unity government. In a center-left Barak coalition, he will be offered such plum ministries as the Interior Ministry. In a Labor-Likud coalition, Sharansky's party will be dwarfed by Shas, which will certainly enter such a government.

Sharansky will be wooed by the left-wing of the Labor Party and the Meretz Party. With Yisrael B'Aliya in Barak's coalition, Shas and the Likud could be kept out. The exclusion of Shas would guarantee that the anti-haredi Shinui Party and Meretz would stay in the government.

The two parties said they will not deal with Shas chairman Arye Deri, sentenced to four years in prison for graft corruption and bribery.

"It could be a choice for Ehud Barak of a coalition with Shas or a coalition with Likud," Hebrew University professor Shlomo Avineri said. "The Likud that brought up Netanyahu also was toppled and it belongs in the opposition."

Barak's resounding victory over Binyamin Netanyahu was not reflected in the election results for parliament. The Labor Party, which won 27 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, does not have a majority in parliament without Yisrael B'Aliya and right-wing parties.

Labor Party parliamentarian Yossi Beilin said he does not see Shas entering the next coalition as long as Deri remains chairman. He said Barak wants a broad-based coalition that supports the Labor Party's platform.

"We want to form the widest government possible," Beilin said. "I would not rule out Likud joining this kind of [coalition] government."

Deri was scheduled to hold a news conference on Tuesday evening to discuss his future. Political sources said Deri wants to resign but his colleagues are calling on him to stay in the party leadership.

Wednesday, May 19, 1999


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