NEWS The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 7 Sharon survives challenge to leadership of Likud TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon survived a major challenge to his leadership in the party he helped found, narrow- ly claiming victory yesterday in a vote widely seen as a referendum on his rule and the recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The victory capped a dramatic comeback for Sharon, who has been vilified by Likud Party hard-liners for the Gaza pullout and who had been trailing in recent opinion polls. Sharon's supporters said the victory meant the prime min- ister would push forward with his peace efforts. "The argument over whether or not Sharon's vision was the Likud's vision is over with this vote," Roni Bar-On, a pro-Sharon lawmaker, told Israel Radio. Yesterday's vote by the 3,000-member Likud central committee was ostensibly over a procedural issue: whether to hold elections for party leader in April, as scheduled, or move up the primary to November. But Sharon and his main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the ballot amounted to a vote of confidence in the prime minister. Netanyahu, who accused Sharon of abandon- ing the hawkish Likud Party's nationalist roots by carrying out the withdrawal, pushed for an early primary to capitalize on anger against the prime minister. Sharon opposed any change. Likud members voted 1,433 to 1,329 - a margin of just 104 votes - in favor of keeping the schedule intact, according to official results announced just after midnight. Turnout was 91 percent. As the results became apparent, Sha- ron's supporters at the site of yesterday's vote popped open champagne bottles and danced in celebration. Netanyahu, a former prime minister, conced- ed defeat yesterday in the 52-48 percent vote, but said he would continue his campaign to oust Sharon. He said the close vote showed that the party remains bitterly divided, with many members opposed to Sharon's concessions to the Palestinians. "I expect to see this camp with all its force when it fights for the path of the Likud in the primaries and I have no doubt in the second phase we will win and the Likud will win," Netanyahu said. Uzi Landau, another prominent opponent of Sharon, said it was now up to the.prime minister to unify the party. "If he wants, it will be unified. If he continues his past practices, it will not." Sharon did not immediately react to the vote. As he cast his ballot earlier yesterday, he warned that the early elections proposal would "badly harm the Likud." Sharon confidants said that with a defeat, he likely would have quit Likud and competed in general elections as the head of a new cen- trist party. Such a run by Sharon, who is pop- ular among the Israeli general public, would strengthen the political center, pushed Likud to the political fringe, and likely improve chances of a Mideast peace deal. Sharon has expressed hope that the Gaza withdrawal could lead to a resumption of peace talks, and he has voiced support for an indepen- dent Palestinian state. The prime minister is still expected to face a tough challenge from Netanyahu in the party primary. And his junior coalition partner, the centrist Labor Party, has hinted at leaving the government and forcing early general elections if peace efforts stall. Elections are currently scheduled in November 2006. Sharon has brushed off repeated attempts by party hard-liners to defeat him since announc- ing plans for the Gaza withdrawal nearly two years ago. In a boost for Sharon, one of the Likud "rebels," Gilad Erdan, said after yester- day's vote that he would call on the party to line up behind Sharon. Polls in recent days had shown Netanyahu with as much as a 12-point lead among Likud voters, and a barrage of rockets launched at Israel by Palestinian militants was expected to further bolster Sharon's opponents. Netanyahu has repeatedly warned the Gaza pullout would encourage Palestinian violence. Late Sunday, Sharon was thwarted from addressing a party convention when his microphone cut out twice. Likud officials said the sound system was sabotaged. After waiting nearly half an hour, Sharon left with- out speaking. In response to the rocket attacks, Israel launched a wide-ranging offensive against mili- tants across Gaza and the WeA Bank over the weekend. Sharon's critics and Palestinian mili- AP PHOTO Likud Party supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon celebrate the results of voting at the Likud Central Committee meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, yesterday. Sharon fended off a challenge to his leadership of the Likud Party yesterday, winning a key party vote by a razor-thin margin. tants have suggested the offensive was aimed at bolstering the prime minister ahead of yester- day's vote. Today, an Israeli missile blew up a small bridge in Gaza, Palestinian officials said. The army said the missile targeted a road used by militants to reach an area used for staging rocket attacks. There were no reports of injuries. Among targets yesterday were suspected weapons factories, an access road leading to a rocket-launching site in northern Gaza, weapons-manufacturing factories and stor- age facilities belonging to various militant groups, and an empty field militants used to launch rockets at Israel. Israel pressed ahead with its air campaign despite Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar's call to end the group's rocket attacks. Zahar said he wanted to prevent further Israeli attacks. The Bush administration has backed Sha- ron's military offensive, and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that Hamas launched attacks on Israel after the statement was made. "We understand the situation in which Israel finds itself," McCormack said. "And we fully understand Israel's right to defend itself." Even if Hamas stops its rocket attacks, it remained unclear whether smaller militant groups would follow suit. Islamic Jihad said it would not observe the truce after an Israeli airstrike Sunday killed one of its top com- manders in Gaza. MUSEUM Continued from page 1 has been provided mostly by alumni donations. So far, more than $28 million has been raised, and the museum expects to reach its fundraising goal before construction begins, Steward said. During the time it will be closed, the museum will operate in a temporary exhibit space on South University Avenue. The building, which has been empty for many years, is only about 4,000 square feet. Due to the small size of the temporary gallery, the museum will not display any of the more than 17,000 works of art in its permanent collection, but will instead house a series of exhibitions, Steward said. The exhibits, which will begin this spring in the current building, will revolve around a common theme of photog- raphy, film and video. "We chose this because in many ways it has been the defin- ing art movement of the modern day," Steward said, adding that the exhibits will work well in the "raw, ... more down- town warehouse ambiance" of the temporary gallery space. While the physical location of the museum will be much smaller during the construction, the museum hopes to con- tinue to have a strong presence at the University and will host a wide variety of programs all over campus. "It will almost become a museum without walls during that time," Steward said. The museum plans to hold student focus groups this year to decide on the best locations for museum-sponsored programs and develop effective ways to let students know where to find them, Steward said. The museum will also solicit help from the focus groups to name the temporary gallery space. Museum staff will be working twice as hard during the renovation to both continue to provide arts programming for the public and to research and restore artwork in the permanent collection while it is in storage, Slavin said. Despite the inconveniences during the two-year con- struction period, Steward said he believes the museum and community will ultimately benefit, and the short-term pain will be worth it in the long run. ROBERTS Continued from page 1 to modesty and respect for precedent have persuaded me that he will not bring an ideological agenda," said Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, one of three Judiciary Committee Democrats who crossed party lines and voted for Roberts. It takes a majority vote of the Senate to confirm a judicial nominee, and all 55 Republicans are expected to unify behind Roberts's nomination. Thirteen of the 44 Democrats have declared their sup- port, the latest being Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana on Sunday. That easily gives Roberts more votes than the last conservative nominee, Clarence Thomas. Thomas was confirmed 52-48 in 1991. President Clinton's two nominees, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, were confirmed 96-3 and 87-9, respectively. Democrats opposing Roberts say they're afraid the for- mer lawyer in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush admin- istrations will be staunchly conservative like Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia. They question Roberts's commitment to civil rights and expressed concern that he might overturn the 1973 court ruling that established the right to abortion. The White House refused to release paperwork from Rob- erts's time as a deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration, and the nominee refused to fully answer Democrats' questions during his confirmation hearing two weeks ago. Sen. Evan Bayh, a possible Democratic presidential can- didate in 2008, introduced Roberts to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the confirmation hearings. But he will vote against him, he said. "I cannot vote to confirm, not because I oppose John Roberts, but because we simply do not know enough about his views on critical issues to make a considered judgment," Bayh said. TRASH- Continued from page 1 Ann Arbor, saying, "I don't believe it's applied (only) in certain areas or com- munities," Councilmember Robert John- son (D-1st Ward) conceded that the initiative "was probably geared towards rentals." Business junior Jason Hahn is one of several students voicing concerns that the Ann Arbor Police Department may be targeting students in off-campus housing when issuing citations for trash violations. Hahn said his residence on Hill Street has been ticketed three times this semester, each citation issued after a Michigan football game. "They come around on Saturdays and basically look for students with trash on their lawns," he said. Though Hahn said Ann Arbor should be kept clean, he said the AAPD failed to give students sufficient time to clean up their lawns before issuing a ticket. "(My) house will have a prefootball party, we'll have some trash on the front lawn and by the time we come back, we have a citation," Hahn said. Hahn described the residual trash on his lawn from pregame parties as a substan- tial amount consisting primarily of empty beer cups and several garbage bags. He added that there was also a desk and a television on his lawn when the first ticket was issued. Many of the tickets written this month for littering and messy front yards have been issued during football games, said Joe Champagne, AAPD community stan- dards supervisor. But he denied that the enforcement of the ordinances targets students. Twenty-three infraction notices were written out this month, according to Champagne. The fines for leaving trash on yards increase incrementally with each addi- tional infraction. The first offense war- rants a civil fine ranging from $100 to $250, the second offense can cost up to $500, and violators are fined between $500 and $1,000 for each additional or subsequent offense within a two-year time period. The Clean Community Program requires that both the landlord and ten- ant receive a warning notice by mail or at a conspicuous place on the property if their front yards do not meet the city's standards. The forewarned parties are given 24 hours to clean the property; failure to remove the clutter or debris from the front and rear of the property results in a hefty fine. If the waste or debris is considered a public health hazard, the city has the right to dispose of the materials, and the property owner is billed for all costs incurred by the city - including labor, equipment, material disposal and over- head. The trash violation tickets are issued to the property owner, though lease agreements often transfer the civil infraction fees to the tenants. The Solid Waste Management code has 14 principal ordinances prescribing the general maintenance of property and garbage, among them a rule that solid waste and solid waste containers that are collected curbside not be at the collec- tion point for more than 24 hours before or 12 hours after the designated day of collection. Despite the costly consequences of tailgating, Hahn vowed to continue host- ing parties on his lawn. He added that he and his housemates were "not trying to do anything mali- cious" and said the AAPD could improve its procedures for maintaining a clean community. "Maybe there could be more warn- ings given, or perhaps the police could come and talk to us about (the Clean Community Program ordinances)." Though Hahn said "issuing fines isn't the right way" to go about encouraging a clean city, the AAPD's stricter enforce- ment of the city's ordinances is achieving some level of success in changing resi- 'dents' habits. As Hahn put it, "We're going to have to start cleaning." the michigan daily !!! OFFICE PERSON: P/T 10 hrsiwk. Flex. sched. Pleasant environment. Management skill/resume building. Downtown A2. Math skills nec. 734-761-7204. !!!BARTENDER WANTED!!! $300 a day potential, Age 18+ ok. No experience neces- sary, training provided. 800-965-6520 x 125. $9.00/HR. MICHIGAN TELEFUND is now hiring. Awesome Resume Builder! Apply on- line: www.telefund.umich.edu or 763-4400. 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