Sharon will be called upon to explain his plan before the plenum. Opposition legislators accuse the prime minister of mouthing the rhetoric of territorial withdrawal and uprooting, while not taking any steps to implement such policies.
As a vote on Sharon’s "disengagement plan" is expected following the special session, Likud coalition heads are considering options for heading off a vote that would be politically embarrassing. One option under consideration is turning the vote into a motion of confidence in the government. In such an eventuality, coalition members who plan on voting against the plan would be prohibited from doing so, as part of their collective ministerial responsibility for general government policy.
National Religious Party head Minister Effie Eitam said today that if the prime minister’s plan is presented as a confidence motion, his party will not vote against it. National Union MK Aryeh Eldad similarly said that he would not be able to vote for the plan, but did not say he would vote no-confidence in the government in which his party serves, should that become the operative alternative to absenting himself from the vote altogether. Certain Likud Knesset Members who took part in last night’s rally in Tel Aviv also left their intentions unclear, saying only that they could not support plans for uprooting Jewish communities.
Whatever policy decisions are made in Israel, in any event, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk does not foresee any major diplomatic developments in the Middle East in the coming year; at least as far as United States involvement is concerned. Speaking at the American Islamic Conference in Qatar, he explained that this is so primarily because America is now in an election year, and because most attention in the US is heavily focused on Iraq.
As a vote on Sharon’s "disengagement plan" is expected following the special session, Likud coalition heads are considering options for heading off a vote that would be politically embarrassing. One option under consideration is turning the vote into a motion of confidence in the government. In such an eventuality, coalition members who plan on voting against the plan would be prohibited from doing so, as part of their collective ministerial responsibility for general government policy.
National Religious Party head Minister Effie Eitam said today that if the prime minister’s plan is presented as a confidence motion, his party will not vote against it. National Union MK Aryeh Eldad similarly said that he would not be able to vote for the plan, but did not say he would vote no-confidence in the government in which his party serves, should that become the operative alternative to absenting himself from the vote altogether. Certain Likud Knesset Members who took part in last night’s rally in Tel Aviv also left their intentions unclear, saying only that they could not support plans for uprooting Jewish communities.
Whatever policy decisions are made in Israel, in any event, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk does not foresee any major diplomatic developments in the Middle East in the coming year; at least as far as United States involvement is concerned. Speaking at the American Islamic Conference in Qatar, he explained that this is so primarily because America is now in an election year, and because most attention in the US is heavily focused on Iraq.