Violence: Sharon faces uphill task

JERUSALEM, MARCH 7. Mr. Ariel Sharon is stepping into power at the head of a national unity government that could be Israel's most stable in years but faces the potentially divisive task of confronting five months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Mr. Sharon submits his proposed government later on Wednesday to Parliament, or Knesset, and once it wins approval he becomes Prime Minister. Approval seemed assured since Mr. Sharon stitched together a coalition from centre-left to far right with the support of three-quarters of the 120-member House.

The coalition will allow Israelis ``to stand together, facing what at this moment poses the greatest danger - the deteriorating state of security,'' Mr. Sharon told his Likud Party on Wednesday.

But he will have no grace period. The militant Islamic group Hamas threatened to greet Mr. Sharon, considered an archenemy by the Palestinians, with a series of suicide bombings.

Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that it had prepared 10 suicide bombers - the first of whom went into action on Sunday, when a Palestinian set off a bomb in the coastal city of Netanya, killing himself and three Israelis. Hamas said its military wing, the Izzedin al-Kassam, was responsible. ``The blood of our women and children will not go to waste, and al-Kassam brigades' response will always be quick and painful,'' Hamas said.

Mr. Sharon was unmoved, blaming the Palestinian leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat, for inciting his people to violence and failing to curb the militants, as Israeli military commanders charged that Mr. Arafat's allies and commanders were involved in attacks. Mr. Sharon has pledged not to resume peace talks until the unrest ends. The Palestinians, meanwhile, remain deeply suspicious of Mr. Sharon, whose reputation as a soldier and politician has been built on his willingness to confront Israel's Arab rivals. ``The new Israeli government must choose between continuing in the policy of talks or continuing its recent policy of blockades and siege and escalation,'' said Mr. Nabil Aburdeneh, a spokesman for Mr. Arafat.

Overnight, a small explosion went off in Jerusalem inside a garbage truck, police said. The truck was damaged but no one was injured.

Though he has not disclosed how he plans to confront the violence, Mr. Sharon hoped his broad-based government would present a united front to shore up an Israeli populace battered by failed peace efforts and months of clashes that have killed 423 people.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mr. Shimon Peres, the Foreign Minister, will sit at the same Cabinet table with Mr. Rehavam Zeevi, Tourism Minister, whose party advocates removing Palestinians from the West Bank.

Attracting the Labor party of the defeated Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Barak, then adding faction after faction in the fractious Knesset, Mr. Sharon (73), hopes to remain in power where others have fallen, serving out his term until mid-2003. He is Israel's fifth Prime Minister in less than six years.

Only gross mismanagement or extremist actions can topple him, said an analyst. ``The Labor Party can't bring down the government.''

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Section  : International
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