party coalition collapsed over a budget row.
Analysts and Labour Party officials said that although Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was likely to continue to govern with ultra-orthodox religious parties, early elections would be inevitable.
Labour left the coalition after demanding that $140 million of the $400 million earmarked for Jewish settlers in Judea/Samaria and Gaza would be re-distributed to welfare budgets.
However Prime Minister Sharon refused to stop the financial support for Jewish communities, at a time of growing Palestinian-Israeli violence around these area’s in which several people were killed in recent days.
GIRLS KILLED
On Tuesday, October 29, three people – two 14-year-old girls, and a woman – were reportedly killed when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the a Jewish community of Hermesh near Jenin in northern Samaria.
Earlier in recent weeks Jewish residents of central Samaria killed one Palestinian and wounded two others involved in harvesting olives.
The Jews who killed the harvesters claimed they acted in "self-defense" against a background of increased terrorist activity in the area, the well informed International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service reported.
MORE VIOLENCE
There is concern among observers that violence will increase under a more right wing Government and the new Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who cut short a trip to the United States Tuesday, October 29, to accept his nomination.
Mofaz was chief of staff during the controversial early months of the armed Palestinian Intifada and analysts say he is known for tough tactics in the occupied territories. His appointment signaled a move to the right for the Defense Ministry following the leadership of the moderate Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
The ICEJ suggested that the departure of Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister appeared to be politically motivated.
RUN-OFF
"With a run-off for the party leadership in less than three weeks, Labour chairman Ben-Eliezer appears to have been forced into the move to improve his popularity," said the ICEJ News Service. Recent polls put him third behind Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna and fellow Knesset member Haim Ramon.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Sharon reportedly sought to renew contacts with the right-wing National Unity/Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset faction, whose support would secure a working majority in Parliament.
