Sharon wins key vote on alliance for Gaza plan

Ariel Sharon. Picture / Reuters

TEL AVIV - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party has agreed to a possible alliance with opposition Labour in a vote that has averted a snap election and strengthened his Gaza withdrawal plan.

The rightist Likud's Central Committee voted by 62 to 38 per cent, according to a final count today, to let Sharon open talks with centre-left Labour on a unity government to replace his shattered coalition.

It was a blow to hardline party rebels who oppose giving up the Gaza Strip or any land captured in the 1967 war.

Western countries back the pullout plan as a step towards a negotiated settlement, especially given new hope of peace talks after Yasser Arafat's death on Nov 11. But Palestinians fear it is a ruse to cement Israel's hold on the West Bank.

Underlining the enduring conflict, a Gaza militant leader survived a missile strike in Israel's first assassination attempt in the occupied territories since Arafat died.

Likud committee members voted in Tel Aviv despite an 11th-hour legal challenge by hardliners, who oppose Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and evacuate four of 120 settlements in the West Bank next year.

Today's non-binding vote reverses the decision of the body in August to reject bringing dovish Labour into the coalition. Members were also asked to authorise coalition talks with two ultra-Orthodox parties.

FEAR OF ELECTIONS

The risk of elections, almost two years early, appeared to have persuaded party members. Voters yearning for political stability might have taken out their anger on Likud by reducing its 40-seat strength in the 120-member parliament.

Sharon's coalition has been whittled down to a minority government with the departure of ultranationalist parties over opposition to his Gaza plan. He ousted the secularist Shinui party last week after it voted against the 2005 budget.

That triggered a crisis he hoped to resolve by setting up a stable coalition with Labour. Sharon now needs a majority to pass the budget by March to avoid automatic elections.

Nicknamed "The Bulldozer" for his aptitude at ploughing through opposition, Sharon has also been buoyed by fresh optimism that peace talks with the Palestinians might resume after a January 9 election for a successor to Arafat.

Sharon has said he might be willing to scale back Israeli army sweeps if militants halted attacks in a four-year-old revolt, but there has been a resurgence in violence in the Gaza Strip this week after a relative lull.

The head of the Popular Resistance Committees, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and two other militants survived a missile strike in Gaza by jumping out of their car moments before it was destroyed. They suffered only light injuries.

"Assassination attempts, even if they succeed, won't weaken the resistance, but will only strengthen it. We will continue fighting until we liberate all Palestinian land," Samhadana told Al Jazeera television.

- REUTERS