Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon will visit the Western Wall this morning, after a visit to the gravesite of his late wife Lily, who passed away last year. Sharon has already appointed a coalition-forming team, comprised of former Minister Ya’akov Ne’eman, Likud Secretary-General Uri Shani, and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert. The landslide victor said last night that he still hopes to form a national-unity government, despite the vacuum created in Labor by Barak’s announced resignation. The Likud coalition team currently has no one with whom to talk in Labor. Some Laborites feel that Shimon Peres should lead the party for the next interim period, while others feel that he is largely to blame for the election loss and does not deserve to lead the party. Avraham Burg, Chaim Ramon, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Shlomo Ben-Ami have been named as possible contenders for the party’s top spot.
Sharon’s other alternative - and possible the only one, given his need to quickly form a government - is to form a narrow right-wing coalition. The 58 “naturally right-wing” seats - three short of a Knesset majority - would have to be supplemented with “outsiders” such as David and Mazime Levy, Dan Meridor, Roni Milo, and Chaim Katz, and their respective demands.
Sharon’s other alternative - and possible the only one, given his need to quickly form a government - is to form a narrow right-wing coalition. The 58 “naturally right-wing” seats - three short of a Knesset majority - would have to be supplemented with “outsiders” such as David and Mazime Levy, Dan Meridor, Roni Milo, and Chaim Katz, and their respective demands.