Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ousted Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a surprise move after reaching agreement on a rightist coalition likely to toughen Israel’s line against the Palestinian uprising. Silvan Shalom, until now finance minister, agreed to take on the foreign ministry. Sharon began forming a coalition after his right-wing Likud party’s general election victory on Jan. 28. In a move clearly engineered to unseat his main internal rival in Likud, Sharon asked Netanyahu to be finance minister. The hawkish former premier, who challenged Sharon for the Likud leadership late last year, refused to take the finance portfolio at a meeting with Sharon in the prime minister’s office. Shalom, who has little foreign policy experience,
A party man without experience. Sigh. Whatever his faults, Netanyahu could at least speak English well and hold his own in a debate.
is widely seen as loyal to Sharon and his appointment is unlikely to bring big changes to Israel’s foreign policy, foreign diplomats said. "I don’t think this will make much difference to foreign policy. Sharon will strengthen his grip on foreign policy with a weaker person as foreign minister," a senior European diplomat said. Sharon was expected to make a new offer of the finance ministry to another loyalist, fellow Likud member Ehud Olmert, and keep on Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in his post. Likud reached a coalition deal early on Wednesday with the centrist Shinui party, the ultranationalist National Union party and the National Religious Party (NRP), a champion of Jewish settlements on occupied land. The coalition forces signed an agreement giving Sharon a government with 68 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
Seeing parlimentary government in action makes me admire the forsight of our founding fathers in setting up a two-party system here in the USA. |