Analysis
Playing Hardball
"Boldness
For Sharon, Likud support is key to unity
government, peace progress.
),
Doorway Pendant
"Whatever you can do or
dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius,
power and magic in it."
Goethe
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
onvinced that 2005 will be a
year of great peace opportuni-
ties, Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon is throwing his consider-
able political weight behind a coalition
with the Labor Party.
Sharon sees a Likud-Labor partner-
ship, bolstered by at least one
Orthodox party, as the ideal tool for
carrying through his disengagement
plan and beyond. To that end, Sharon
is following a two-stage strategy:
C
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a bit trickier, though, because of oppo-
sition within Likud to an alliance that
party hard-liners fear will drag the
government leftward.
But Sharon was strengthening his
hand ahead of a key Likud Central
Committee vote that was set for Dec.
9. A defeat in the Central Committee
almost certainly would lead Sharon to
go to new national elections. A victo-
ry, and a coalition with Labor, would
enable the prime minister to push for-
ward on peace moves with the
Palestinians, Syrians and others.
At a business conference Dec. 6 in
Tel Aviv, Sharon spoke of "restoring
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The Closer You Get,
The More Natural It Looks
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon addresses his ministers at the weekly cabinet
meeting Nov. 28.
Truly undetectable visually and to the touch.
A feeling so natural the only sensation
you won't have is pain, when pulled.
• First, ensuring that the centrist,
secular Shinui Party — which has
refused to sit in government with fer-
vently Orthodox parties — leaves the
coalition.
• Then, breaking resistance in
Sharon's own Likud Party to a partner-
ship with Labor.
The first stage of Sharon's strategy
already has gone off nicely. Shinui
pulled out of the government last
week over a deal between Likud and
the Orthodox United Torah Judaism
party under which the government
would allocate about $65 million in
next year's budget for religious institu-
tions and needs.
Sharon may not have planned
Shinui's walk-out, but he did nothing
to stop it. It was a question of simple
arithmetic: Likud and Shinui together
had 54 seats in the Knesset, a minority
in the 120-member house; but Likud
and Labor would have a majority of 62.
Replacing Shinui with Labor will be
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Israel's regional and international posi-
tion" and declared that it would be "a
terrible mistake" to miss opportunities
in 2005 because of petty party politi-
cal squabbles.
Egypt's Lead
According to aides, Sharon is particu-
larly buoyed by what he sees as a
potential strategic partnership with
Egypt for promoting regional stability.
Given Egypt's leadership position in the
Arab world, Sharon believes the recent
change in relations between Cairo and
Jerusalem could create an atmosphere
conducive to accommodation with
Israel throughout the region, and that
this could come to fruition next year.
Analysts see the new Egyptian atti-
tude to Israel as especially significant,
given the ostensibly more pragmatic
Palestinian leadership that has
emerged in the wake of Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat's
death and ongoing Syrian efforts to