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Israeli defense minister quits Likud to join Sharon

Posted on: Sunday, 11 December 2005, 07:01 CST

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz joined Ariel Sharon's new Kadima faction on Sunday, sowing further disarray in the ruling rightist Likud Party abandoned by the prime minister in the run-up to a March general election.

Mofaz is a popular figure among many Israelis for his tough handling of a 5-year-old Palestinian uprising, although opinion polls had predicted he would lose a Likud leadership race on December 19 to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sharon founded centrist Kadima after quitting Likud last month over a rebellion by hawkish legislators who condemned Israel's Gaza pullout as a surrender to Palestinian militants. Mofaz cited a sense of solidarity as reason for his defection.

"The combination of the prime minister and myself, which has proven itself so persuasively over the past few years, is the right and proper combination to lead Israel over the next few years," Mofaz told reporters.

Mofaz said he would remain defense minister if Sharon wins re-election in the March 28 poll. Army Radio quoted the prime minister as saying he was "pleased with Mofaz's decision."

Surveys predict Likud finishing a distant third to Kadima and the centre-left Labour Party.

On Wednesday, Tzachi Hanegbi, acting Likud chairman and a pillar of its right wing, abandoned the party for Kadima. Veteran statesman Shimon Peres has also joined Kadima, quitting Labour after it voted him out as its leader.

REAL PEACE

Since announcing he was leaving Likud, Sharon has reaffirmed his commitment to a U.S.-backed peace "road map" that charts reciprocal steps leading to the creation of a peaceful Palestinian state in territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.

But he has said there could be no progress toward peace until the Palestinian Authority fulfilled the road map's call to dismantle militant groups behind anti-Israeli violence. The Palestinians rule out such a crackdown as risking civil war.

Israel has failed to meet its own requirement of halting the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, fuelling Palestinian suspicions that Sharon plans to deny them large swathes of occupied land where they seek statehood.

Drawing diplomatic battle lines with Sharon, new Labour chief Amir Peretz said on Sunday that, if elected prime minister, he would achieve a peace accord within four years.

"I will act to reach a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians with the utmost speed," Peretz told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"We must have a permanent settlement in hand by the end of the government's term."

Netanyahu, the leading Likud "rebel," accused Sharon of jeopardising Israel's security with the unilateral Gaza pullout, but has said he would cede some land to the Palestinians if they stamped out militancy.

"I hope once the dust settles in Israel that this time we will have a partner for the end-game, for real peace," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

(Additional reporting by Cynthia Johnston and Tali Caspi in Jerusalem and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)

Source: REUTERS

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