Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made official his intention to call a snap election if he faces difficulty in October trying to pass the budget for 2003. In the last two weeks, Sharon has been encountering the threat that two leading factions in his coalition -- Shas and Labor -- will vote against the budget in the Knesset.
These two factions give Sharon his parliamentary majority and if they vote against the budget they will topple his national unity government. Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer denied reports Monday that they conspired to prevent the government's 2003 budget from passing in order to bring about an early general election in January.
Sharon and Ben-Eliezer's offices confirmed the two discussed the budget on Friday. They said Sharon threatened Ben-Eliezer with early elections if Labor does not support the budget, but rejected allegations they coordinated a date for the vote that would be mutually convenient.
Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin, Sharon's closest ally in the cabinet, said Sharon warned Labor and Shas of the possibility of early elections on July 30 when the budget passed in the government without their support.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Rivlin said that three weeks ago, when it became clear to Sharon that passing the budget would be difficult, he decided he may have to take advantage of his right under the Direct Election Law to declare early elections in 90 days. Sharon made the decision in a meeting with Rivlin, cabinet secretary Gideon Sa'ar, and Prime Minister's Office Director-General Avigdor Yitzhaki and bureau chief Dov Weisglass.
"Sharon knows that Labor wants an excuse to make the government collapse on the economic, not the security issue," Rivlin said. "He doesn't want Labor to remain both in and out of the government, and he also doesn't want to be seen by the public as dragged by Shas or the Knesset." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
