sha News Feb 27, 2003 www.aljazeerah.info

Al-Jazeerah, News

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ousted hawkish Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a surprise move yesterday after forging a new rightist coalition likely to toughen Israel's line against a Palestinian uprising.

Silvan Shalom, until now finance minister, agreed to take on the foreign ministry in the coalition.
In a move clearly engineered to undermine his main internal rival in Likud, Sharon asked Netan-yahu to be finance minister.

Netanyahu, who had earlier turned down the finance portfolio, said he would now accept the post on condition he also be given the responsibility of acting prime minister at times of Sharon's absence, Israeli public television reported.

Likud reached a coalition deal early yesterday with the centrist Shinui party, the ultranationalist National Union party and the National Religious Party (NRP), a champion of Jewish colonies on occupied land. The coalition parties signed an agreement giving Sharon a government with 68 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

Sharon is expected to present the coalition to parliament, the Knesset, today.

The inclusion of the right-wing parties will increase pressure on Sharon to take an even tougher line against the Palestinians and could make it even harder for international mediators to end 29 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The Palestinians are wary of the proposed coalition because of the expected shift to the right. "It is obvious from the nature of the agreements and the nature of the parties that the Israeli government will be a government of colony activities, of more military escalations and incursions," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian civilian died yesterday two weeks after being critically wounded in Qalqilya as stonethrowers clashed with the Israeli army.

http://www.aljazeerah.info

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.