ISRAEL: POLITICS: INSIDE THE KNESSET

Описание: (27 Dec 1999) Hebrew/Eng/Nat

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak no longer has a majority of Israel's parliament backing his coalition government.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party has decided to leave Barak's government in response to differences over education and welfare issues.

The political upheaval comes as Barak prepares for peace negotiations with both Syria and the Palestinians.

It means he'll go into the negotiations with a minority in the Knesset - making prospects of gaining lawmakers' support for any deal more problematic.

It wasn't clear whether Shas was just posturing on Monday.

The party's departure would not immediately threaten Barak.

Shas' departure leaves Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak with a minority coalition of 51 legislators out of the 120 members of parliament.

But Barak's also assured of outside support from an array of smaller opposition parties.

Shas members say the party is leaving because of the government's failure to bail out the country's troubled educational and welfare network.

The chairman of Shas' parliamentary caucus, Yitzhak Vaknin, says his party had given Barak 24 hours notice to come up with a solution.

SOUNDBITE: (Hebrew)
\"My feeling is bad. I'm not sure what will happen. The Prime Minister has 24 hours to try and solve the problem. I really can only say I'm sceptical but let's give the Prime Minister his 24 hours and let's see what happens.
SUPER CAPTION: Yair Pertz, Shas Member

The departure of Shas would leave open the possibility that eight members of strictly secular parties could join
his coalition, although that would leave him with a minority of 59.

The head of the 6-member secular Shinui party, Yossi Lapid, immediately offered to join Barak's coalition.

Even so, Lapid said the move was purely tactical.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"This is just a manoeuvre to get more money out of Barak and of Sarid and ultimately they will get it.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Yosef Lapid, Head of Shinui party

Some Knesset members maintained a more optimistic outlook saying the problem should be resolved.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"We established this government and we invested a lot of effort to establish it and we didn't establish the government 5 or 6 months ago in order to destroy it now, so we are making an effort to solve the problem.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Yossi Sarid, head of left wing Meretz party

The opposition Likud party has attempted to draw Shas out of the coalition since Barak assumed government in July, appealing to the party's more hawkish voters.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"It looks that the government is in a deadlock right now and maybe it's the last days. If it's not going to happen now, it will happen in the next few days or weeks. They don't have a majority here within the Knesset.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Sylvan Shalom, member of Likud opposition party

Barak wants a permanent peace treaty with the Palestinians by September, and a deal with Syria within the year.

While the prospect of a government fall is unlikely, Barak could face pressure from smaller coalition parties who remain deeply suspicious of the peace process.

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