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Benjamin
Netanyahu
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, November 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon hopes to persuade his hawkish rival Benjamin
Netanyahu over the weekend to become his Foreign Minister, as he seeks
to form a new right-wing cabinet following the collapse of the coalition
government, news agencies reported Saturday, November 2.
Sharon
offered the job to his rival for the leadership of his right-wing Likud
during a two-hour meeting late Friday, November 1, at his ranch in
southern Israel's
Negev desert, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
hawkish Netanyahu, a former Prime Minister, was expected to give Sharon
an answer at a second meeting Sunday, November 3, according to Israeli
public television.
The
Jerusalem Post also reported Friday that Netanyahu, who has veered
hard to the right since losing office in 1999, was being considered for
the post of Foreign Minister.
Sharon
asked Netanyahu to join the government "on the basis of the
guidelines of the current government and to work together on the
challenges facing Israel," an Israeli diplomatic source said. It
was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu would accept Sharon's offer,
according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz.
Israeli
Public radio quoted Likud sources as saying they expected Netanyahu to
accept the job, although this could complicate an eventual Netanyahu bid
to replace Sharon.
Sharon
has already offered the post of Defense Minister to the hard line former
army chief of staff Shaul Mofaz.
Government
sources said Mofaz, who last spring called for (Palestinian President)
Yasser Arafat's deportation, asked for a few days to consider the offer.
Sharon's
national unity government collapsed Wednesday, October 30, when the
Labor party's five ministers, including Foreign Secretary Shimon Peres,
resigned in a row over subsidies for Jewish settlers in the Palestinian
occupied territories.
Meanwhile,
minister without portfolio Danny Naveh, a member of Sharon's Likud
party, said he was confident the revamped cabinet would heed
Washington's demand for restraint in case of a U.S.-led war on Iraq.
"I
think that at the end of the day, this kind of (right-wing) government
can cope with these demands," Naveh told army radio.
Netanyahu,
popularly known as "Bibi" is popular with Israeli hardliners,
having rejected the idea of a fully-fledged Palestinian state and called
for the ouster of Arafat.
He
is expected to challenge Sharon - who served as Foreign Minister during
Netanyahu's 1996-99 premiership - for the leadership of the Likud party
before the next election.
However,
Sharon might prefer to bring his rival into the cabinet fold rather than
have him carping from the outside.
Peres,
another former Prime Minister, said he "would not vote" for
Netanyahu to become his successor at the foreign ministry.
Peres
held talks with Palestinian officials on the Spanish island of Mallorca
Friday, November 1.
He
and Israeli Parliament speaker Avraham Burg conversed with chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Palestinian Authority national
security adviser Mohammed Dahalan.
Sharon's
strategy received a boost Friday as polls showed he country would swing
to the right if new elections were held.
One
poll showed a coalition with the extreme right and hardcore religious
parties would guarantee Sharon's Likud party victory in general
elections.
As
Sharon courted ultra-nationalist parties to join his cabinet, he assured
US President George W. Bush that Israel
would continue to back U.S. peace efforts and heed his demand for
calm in the region ahead of a possible war on Iraq.
The
ultra-rightwing camp is dead set against the international peace plan
backed by Washington that calls for the creation of a provisional
Palestinian state by the end of 2005. Sharon has backed the plan, albeit
with strong reservations.
Washington
insisted that the Israeli political crisis had not changed U.S.
objectives in the Middle East, but there were fears it could add a new
wrinkle to the U.S. campaign against Baghdad.
The
Palestinians, meanwhile, voiced fears of even tougher Israeli action to
crush their two-year-old Intifada under Mofaz and other hardliners.
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