the position of foreign minister to help premier Ariel Sharon to keep his government afloat, but only if early elections are held.
"I said to the Prime Minister that if we don’t go to early elections the Government can barely survive," he told reporters. "Without early elections we can not do the economic reforms that I believe are necessary," he added.
Although the vote was set for next October, Sharon was expected to force an election within 90 days. However the call for early elections seemed to underscore a power battle between Sharon and Netanyahu, who are known to fight each other to lead their Likud Party into the country’s next ballot.
To be part of a new cabinet marks a political come back for Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 1996 to 1999, when he was defeated by the left leaning Labor Party’s Ehud Barak.
CONCERN IN ISRAEL
However there is concern in Israel that the political crisis could plunge the troubled country into even greater turmoil as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drags on, amid the threat of a possible US-led war against Iraq.
Prime Minister Sharon’s coalition collapsed last week when the Labor Party withdrew from the government because of a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories. Besides Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Labor Party leader and Defense Minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer resigned abruptly.
The Defense Minister has been replaced by former hard-line army chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, whose nomination was expected to be put before parliament for approval on Monday, November 4.
