After prolonged haggling the Likud and Labor parties agree to form a government, reports Khaled Amayreh Israeli commentators have used a variety of terms to describe the new government, including "marriage of expedience" and a "life-belt" for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his unilateral plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The plan is opposed by many Likud members as well as by most religious and right-wing parties. Sharon had hoped to include the ultra-religious party, Shas, in his coalition, giving his government a larger parliamentary majority. But a statement by the party's spiritual mentor, Ovadia Yosef, opposing the proposed withdrawal from Gaza blocked the party's entry into the government. Meanwhile Sharon is trying hard to woo another ultra-orthodox party to his government. Yahdut H'atorah, (previously Agudat Yisrael), however, is demanding a hefty price for supporting the Gaza plan. It has asked for hefty funding of its religious and educational institutions as well as several ministerial posts. Following the Likud-Labour agreement earlier this week an unexpected hurdle appeared when the current deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, refused to resign from his post to allow for the appointment of Labour Party leader Shimon Peres. Olmert was adamant in his refusal and Peres equally adamant in his insistence on becoming deputy prime minister. The saga only ended when the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, hastily approved a new law allowing the prime minister to appoint two deputies. According to the coalition agreement between Israel's two largest parties, Labour will obtain eight ministerial posts, three without portfolio. None of the most important ministries, however, will go to Labour. The ministries of foreign affairs, defence and finance will all remain in Likud hands. The new coalition government will have 64 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Likud and Labour leaders also hope that Arab parties, and the newly formed centre-left party Yahad, will provide the government with an additional safety net should it face a no-confidence motion. Religious and right-wing secular parties opposed to the planned withdrawal from Gaza have repeated threatens to table such a motion. Opposition to the withdrawal grew when a prominent leader of the Jewish settler movement, Pinhas Wallerstein, called on supporters to "proactively" oppose the Gaza plan, even at the risk of going to jail. While Wallerstein's call was denounced by the government and the judicial establishment many prominent rabbis expressed support for Wallerstein. Acting on instructions from Yesha, the council of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, many settlers wore yellow stars of David, similar to those Jews were obliged to wear in Nazi Germany more than 60 years ago. The tactic proved too much for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which demanded an immediate end to the "disgusting feat". Settler leaders rejected ADL criticism, arguing that the "extirpation of Jews from their land" amounted to a new holocaust. The mainly Talmudic settlers consider the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as large parts of the Arab world, as the Biblical promised land.
