Barak's Ruling Partner Threatens to Leave Coalition

Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak may lose another ruling partner as the moderate religious party Meimad threatened on Sunday to withdraw from his coalition.

According to Meimad officials, the party, who participated in the 1999 general elections under One Israel umbrella group led by Barak's Labor Party, is angry at Barak's intention to restart his civil reform agenda and urged him to take back his statements.

In two campaign advertisements broadcast by Israeli televisions Saturday night, Barak said that the reform, which he proposed last year but withdrew under the pressure of orthodox parties later, will be revived and include plans to permit shops to open and allow public transportation system to run on Shabbat, the Jews' resting day from Friday sundown to Saturday sunset.

The TV commercials were aimed at Russian immigrants and other secular voters, who Barak believes are the most important undecided voting groups and essential for his victory in Israel's prime ministerial election on February 6.

But they irritated the religious sector, who regards Shabbat as a holy day and thinks it should not be tarnished by Barak's civil reform plan.

Meimad leader and Minister Without Portfolio Michael Melchior threatened to resign his cabinet post as a result of the ads.

The moderate religious leader stressed that Barak had pledged not to go ahead with his plan without consulting the Meimad, but failed to keep his promise.

Melchior said he will hold an emergency meeting with Barak this afternoon to get clarifications from him.

In response, Barak said that his reform plan would not be forced on the public and would only be carried out after a process of dialog between religious and secular Israelis.

The Gesher Party, another member of the One Israel group led by former Foreign Minister David Levy, already bowed out of the coalition last July due to significant differences between the party and Barak over the peace process.

Meimad's possible withdrawal may deal another blow to Barak's election campaign. The prime minister now trails his rival, right- wing opposition Likud party leader Ariel Sharon in opinion polls by 20 percentage points.






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