Peres: Likud-Labor-Shinui gov't can be formed immediately

[Gimel]

Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres met Friday with Shinui chairman Yosef Lapid to discuss creating a joint bloc to compel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to include both parties in his coalition.

"A government can be formed immediately ... comprised of the Likud, Labor and Shinui," Peres said after the meeting, which took place at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv.

Such a government would assure a majority for the disengagement plan, Peres said.

Lapid said he thinks Sharon also supports a Likud-Labor-Shinui government, but was having trouble implementing the move because he must contend with internal party opposition. A segment of the Likud party, most prominently Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, is vehemently opposed to what it terms a "secular-left" government.

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[bemildred]

1. Seems a bizarre combination to me. nt

[Darranar]

3. Well...

It worked a few years ago (minus Shinui, but they'll go along with almost any coalition I think), and of course with Sharon's disengagement plan, the two may work together with less fuss on how blatant Israel's expansionist policies are on the part of Labor's leadership.

The absurdity of the current coalition (theoretically secular and centrist Shinui mixed with a few far-right fundamentalist parties, with Likud of course in the middle) doesn't seem to have much effect, and I don't see why a less absurd combination of Likud-Labor-Shinui would be any less functional.

It helps all three parties - Sharon no longer needs to worry about his right flank, Shinui gets boosted because of the decreased influence of the fundamentalist parties, and Labor gets to join the coalition. It doesn't help much else, unfortunately, but for the time being not much would.

You used the term "bizarre" though, not quite sure what you mean in this context.

[bemildred]

4. True, bizarre is sort of normal.

What is bizarre is the contrast between the policies of the
government and the stated platforms of the parties that make
it up. We get a good deal of that in the US too. I suppose that
sets me up for "politics is the art of compromise" and so on,
but I stand by my sense of cognitive disconnect.

[Djinn]

2. well they pretty much have the same views

despite the myth that gets propagated here that if only the Labor Party was in power the whole I/P drama would be solved.