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Israel's Labor Party Threatens to Quit Government
Israel's left-wing Labor Party has issued strong warnings against the government's policy of launching military operations in the occupied Palestinian territories and threatened to quit the coalition in protest.
Industry and Trade Minister Dalia Itzik said Sunday morning that the Labor, the largest parliamentary group in the Knesset (Parliament), will not stay much longer in the current coalition government headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
In an interview with Army Radio, Itzik slammed the government's current policies, saying that "we are not sitting there (in the government) in order to conquer territories."
The minister said that the Labor will stay in the government for "three months."
Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, who has been vying for Labor chairmanship, also said on Sunday if Foreign Minister Shimon Peres decides to leave the government, the entire Labor Party will follow in this track.
The massive army operations in the six Palestinian cities in the West Bank following Wednesday's assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi have triggered growing discontent in the Labor Party.
Labor Knesset faction chairman Effi Oshaya warned Saturday that if Sharon does not set red lines for the army actions in the West Bank, he will cross Labor's red lines and the Labor will leave the government.
"We have joined the government to encourage it to make peace, not to sanction it in war," Oshaya said.
He also called on Peres to delay his U.S. trip and meet with Labor ministers to set red lines for staying in the coalition.
Peres, who is due to arrive in the United States on Sunday, was frustrated with the limits put on him by Sharon. He said Saturday night that as a foreign minister, he was free to meet Palestinian National Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Peres has come under pressure from the Left to quit the government if he can not influence the government policy. His party colleague and architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords Yossi Beilin Saturday also called on him to resign and accused him of betraying his ideology.
Some 100 peace activists demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's residence Saturday night. Opposition leader Yossi Sarid from the left-wing Meretz Party said that he would submit a no- confidence vote to protest the "new occupations."
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