Israel's Yisrael B'Aliya Party Merges with Sharon's Likud

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 07, 2003

Israel's Yisrael B'Aliya Party Merges with Sharon's Likud

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Israel's Yisrael B'Aliya party, which has six seats in the outgoing parliament and won two seats in the coming 16th Israeli parliament, merged with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party on Thursday.

Yisrael B'Aliya's leader Natan Sharansky and Sharon signed an agreement to this effect Thursday afternoon at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.

Sharon's Likud won 38 of the total 120 seats of the 16th parliament in the Jan. 28 general elections.

The swallow of the Yisrael B'Aliya party made Sharon the leader of a 40-seat faction in the parliament, more than double the seat number of the No. 2 party in the parliament, the Labor party.

As part of the deal, Sharansky is to be named minister of Diaspora affairs and Jerusalem in Sharon's new government coalition, according to local media.

Yuli Edelstein, who is second to Sharansky on the party's list, is likely to be given a deputy ministerial post.

The Yisrael B'Aliya party's ideology is to stress the immigrant rights and support a Palestinian state only if it is a democratic one.

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