Barak set out for the summit with US President Bill Clinton
and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat with a
dramatically smaller coalition than he had just 24 hours
earlier. The withdrawal of NRP, Yisrael Ba'aliya and Shas
will take the Barak government down to 13 cabinet ministers
from 22 just a few weeks ago and it reduces Barak's Knesset
supporters from 68 MKs to 42.
Shas announced it was withdrawing from the coalition because
Barak was unwilling to confide in its leadership about the
red lines that will guide him at the summit. At a meeting,
Barak merely went over the guidelines he has repeatedly
declared.
When Prime Minister Ehud Barak leaves on Tuesday for Camp
David, half the cabinet travels with him. He has held four
cabinet portfolios: defense (since the government's
formation), and education, agriculture, and industry and
trade, which he acquired when the Meretz party left the
government last month. Now he also hold the positions of the
Cabinet Ministers of the other three parties that resigned:
interior, health, national infrastructure, labor and social
affairs, and religious affairs. He also became acting housing
minister with the NRP's resignation. Altogether he now holds
ten cabinet posts.
Barak was shocked by Shas's decision, as the party had
earlier stated that it would wait to see what kind of
agreement, if any, Barak would bring back.
Eli Yishai, leader of Shas, argued that he would actually be
strengthening Barak by quitting the coalition, because now
Barak "can go to the summit and tell Clinton, `I have no
coalition, and I have no government, and I don't have a
majority among the people. I must bring a good agreement to
the people.' "
Barak also met with Sharansky, who nevertheless went ahead
with submitting his letter of resignation. Responding to
Barak's claim that his red lines are well known, he said that
the Barak guidelines, as he has been presenting them to the
public, are "broad enough to still allow him to withdraw from
90 percent of the Jordan Valley, the overwhelming majority of
Judea and Samaria, and to make concessions on Jerusalem."
After submitting his letter of resignation, Sharansky moved
to a tent near the Prime Minister's Office, holding meetings
for many hours with supporters.
The third rebellion of the day took place at a meeting of the
NRP central committee in Tel Aviv.
The party announced in a statement afterward that the
committee had "decided unanimously to pull the NRP out of the
cabinet and the coalition," and instructed Housing Minister
Yitzhak Levy, Deputy Education Minister Shaul Yahalom, and
Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Yigal Bibi to submit their
letters of resignation to Barak.
Foreign Minister David Levy also announced that he would not
be joining Barak at Camp David though he did not leave the
government.
Levy refused to say what was behind his decision, but in
recent weeks he has become increasingly critical of Barak's
negotiating tactics, saying that Israel has taken to
"offering the maximum" and getting nothing but the "bare
minimum" in return. He was also critical of the fact that a
number of ministers, and in particular Ben-Ami, are
participating in high-level talks and generally acting like
foreign ministers.
Barak said that Levy is still a true partner whom he "highly
respects" and that, although he had tried to convince Levy to
attend the summit, he respected his decision to stay home.
The cabinet agreed to authorize Barak to release Palestinian
security prisoners. It was made clear, however, that if this
is done, it will be as a "goodwill gesture" during the summit
and not beforehand.
The umbrella group for organizations in Israel which
represent Holocaust survivors asked the government to bring
up the issue of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism during the
Camp David Summit with the Palestinians.
The US, meanwhile, is confident that, despite his coalition
chaos, Barak has enough popular support to reach a peace
accord with the Palestinians, special Middle East envoy
Dennis Ross said.
Ross said the US is hoping to seal a deal by July 19, the day
President Bill Clinton flies to Japan for the G-8 economic
summit.
