Efforts to keep Likud from embarrassing PM

Ha'aretz ^ | May 12, 2002 | Yossi Verter

[Lion's Cub]

Sunday, May 12, 2002 Sivan 1, 5762
Israel Time: 09:19 (GMT+3)

Efforts to keep Likud from embarrassing PM

By Yossi Verter

The Likud Central Committee will convene today at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium with a vote on a resolution against the establishment of a Palestinian state topping the agenda. Adoption of the resolution by the committee would be in direct contradiction to the position of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Frantic last-minute efforts were made at the weekend to find a compromise that would prevent an embarrassment for Sharon. The prime minister's confidantes, headed by his son, Omri, held several consultations in an effort to get Sharon out of a difficult corner. "Sharon has been booby-trapped," the prime minister's supporters said yesterday. "He can't vote for a resolution against a Palestinian state because that would be interpreted as a denial of statements he himself made, and that's not how a leader behaves."

Sharon's confidantes lobbied activists, MKs and ministers in an effort to prevent the vote, saying that adopting the the resolution would not only undermine Sharon's position in the Likud, but would also inflict political damage on Israel and serve as a PR coup for the Palestinians.

Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin proposed that the vote be canceled altogether and said that it was aimed more at undermining the prime minister than at preserving the Land of Israel.

Meanwhile, tension between Sharon's camp and that of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to rise ahead of the convention. Senior sources in Sharon's camp said that Netanyahu was acting out of personal interests and that he never missed an opportunity to undermine the prime minister.

Sources close to Netanyahu said in response to the accusations that the former prime minister had had no part in convening the Central Committee, but that he would speak at the convention and express his well-known opinion against a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu is considering adopting a compromise proposal put forward by Education Minister Limor Livnat, according to which the Central Committee would ratify the Likud's political manifesto, which includes a clause negating the foundation of a Palestinian state.

The original proposal that was sent to the Central Committee's 2,660 members states categorically that there will be "no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River." The proposed resolution is the result of protest within the Likud following the prime minister's statement in September last year, when he said: "Israel wants to give the Palestinians what nobody has ever given them - the possibility to establish a state."

Livnat told Ha'aretz yesterday that her proposal was aimed at preserving the Likud's ideological position, but also at preventing an embarrassment to the prime minister.

As of yesterday, Sharon's representatives had yet to decide whether or not to support Livnat's compromise proposal. Sharon, himself, is opposed to the compromise formula and sources in the Likud said that it was doubtful he would be able to support it as it also stated that there would be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.

[Lion's Cub]

I understand the Israeli desire to appear unified, but it's time for the gloves to come off. There must be no palestinian state west of the Jordan.