JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ariel Sharon was poised to take office on Wednesday as prime minister in a unity government he formed to confront a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation that has shaken the Jewish state to the core.
The right-wing Likud party leader will be sworn in along with a cabinet of at least 26 ministers after parliament votes confidence in his seven-party alliance in an expected three-hour-long session starting at 9:45 a.m. EST.
Sharon, 73, has sewn together a coalition controlling at least 73 seats in the 120-member Knesset, mixing the center-left Labor Party with ultra-nationalist blocs.
Labour's elder statesman Shimon Peres, an architect of interim peace deals with the Palestinians, will be foreign minister in a government which he said would adhere to a principle territorial compromise in future negotiations.
But Israeli left-wingers have called into question the peacemaking ability of a coalition uniting advocates of a state for Palestinians with politicians who want to expel them from the West Bank and Gaza.
"The way I see it, the unity of the people is more important than anything else," Sharon said on Tuesday.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-MIDEAST-LEADALL-DC_NEW.XML
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One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com
The right-wing Likud party leader will be sworn in along with a cabinet of at least 26 ministers after parliament votes confidence in his seven-party alliance in an expected three-hour-long session starting at 9:45 a.m. EST.
Sharon, 73, has sewn together a coalition controlling at least 73 seats in the 120-member Knesset, mixing the center-left Labor Party with ultra-nationalist blocs.
Labour's elder statesman Shimon Peres, an architect of interim peace deals with the Palestinians, will be foreign minister in a government which he said would adhere to a principle territorial compromise in future negotiations.
But Israeli left-wingers have called into question the peacemaking ability of a coalition uniting advocates of a state for Palestinians with politicians who want to expel them from the West Bank and Gaza.
"The way I see it, the unity of the people is more important than anything else," Sharon said on Tuesday.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-MIDEAST-LEADALL-DC_NEW.XML
------------------
One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com