Israeli Parliament rejects Sharon's pullout plan

Tuesday night, a huge explosion rocked Gaza city after nightfall Tuesday, and witnesses said the blast went off near Palestinian security headquarters as security chief Moussa Arafat's convoy was leaving. There was no immediate word on whether Arafat was injured.

MPs voted 53 to 44 Monday against the prime minister's speech at the beginning of the winter parliamentary session, which was largely centered on his so-called disengagement plan, after it was opposed by several members of Sharon's own Likud Party and by the main opposition Labor Party.

While the vote was largely symbolic, it underlined how Sharon has few options but to bring Labor into government if he wants a majority for his pullout plan when it is put to a formal vote in Parliament in two weeks.

Labor has given its qualified backing for the plan, but Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said it was now time for the party to come off the fence.

"There is no doubt that the Labor Party is the priority for the enlargement of the coalition, but what we need to know is whether they really want to take part in crucial decisions in power," Olmert told public radio Tuesday.

Sharon lost his overall majority in June when some allies balked at the pullout plan.

Olmert, Sharon's closest ally in government, said the current political instability was "dangerous," as he attacked right-wing Likud opponents of Sharon for risking "the collapse of Likud and the fall of the government."

The head of the Labor faction in Parliament, Dalia Itzik, said her party "believes it is right to leave Gaza, as do the majority of the country.

"We are ready to provide the premier a safety net in Parliament for anything to do with disengagement, but it will not be a wideranging net as we want to block everything else," she said.

Itzik and another senior Labor deputy, former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, are expected to hold talks with Sharon over the next few days.

Sharon held a series of meetings with Labor leader Shimon Peres about joining the coalition earlier in the summer but they failed to reach an agreement.

The situation has been further complicated after Likud's Central Committee voted against Labor joining the government, although Sharon has made clear he will not be bound by that verdict.

Another possible scenario for Sharon could see him bring the ultra-Orthodox Shas or United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties into government.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held talks Tuesday with Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in a bid to persuade him to reverse his previous opposition to the pullout while Sharon will meet UTJ leaders on Wednesday.

However, Shas' or UTJ's entry into government could only serve to trigger the departure of their arch-opponents, the secular Shinui Party, the second-largest party in the coalition.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Jabaliya camp, home to some 104,000 refugees, remained tense, with sporadic gunfire from Israeli tanks sending the Palestinian population ducking for shelter.

Israeli Army bulldozers continued to level citrus groves and houses in the north of the camp.

"Israel moved into Jabaliya and some people have been forced to fight back," said Dr. Manar al-Farra, director of the camp's Al-Awdah Hospital. "We are expecting more casualties at any time."

Farra has signed the death certificates of 26 people since Operation Days of Penitence began a fortnight ago. Six of those fatalities were children.

Health NGO Medicins du Monde also lashed Israel over the offensive, accusing it of using heavy weaponry against civilians and blocking humanitarian and medical aid from the area.

"There has been a considerable usage by the Israeli Army of armed vehicles and planes. Missiles have frequently been used to target vehicles, buildings and people," the French agency said in a statement. The organizations called humanitarian and medical access a "major problem."

The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) has only been able to deliver three convoys of humanitarian aid, with a fourth due Tuesday. Those convoys will feed around 9,000 people.

And in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, an 11-year-old Palestinian girl was critically wounded by Israeli army gunfire Tuesday while she was sitting at her desk in a school run by Unrwa.

Labor to the rescue?

BEIRUT: Ariel Sharon is faced with the prospect of bringing the Labor Party into government if he wants a majority for his pullout plan when it is put to a formal vote in Parliament on Oct. 25. Although Labor will demand a high price for supporting Sharon, it is at least in favor of the Gaza withdrawal.

Sharon's other alternative, convincing the ultra-Orthodox Shas or United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties into government, looks a nonstarter. Not only do both oppose the withdrawal, their entry into government will almost certainly rupture a central plank of Sharon's coalition, as the secular Shinui Party, the second-largest party in the coalition, will not serve alongside the ultra-Orthodox parties.

If he cannot form a new coalition, Sharon will have little option in the wake of Monday's vote but to call a general election, or hold a nationwide referendum on the plan. So far he has shown little inclination to appeal to the electorate, partly as both options would delay the withdrawal, but also as he fears it may act as a catalyst for enabling his arch rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to wage a leadership fight.

The option of fumbling on as a minority government, relying on ad hoc majorities to pass major bills such as the withdrawal plan and the budget, is unlikely to impress a divided Knesset.

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