Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in a move designed to call for early elections.
Sharon "met with President Moshe Katsav and asked him – in accordance with Article 29 of [the] Basic Law [on] The Government to dissolve the Knesset," his office told BosNewsLife in a statement, at a time of a heated debate on the future of the Jewish state and Middle East peace.
The move was needed "as a majority of the Knesset opposes the Government thus making it impossible for the Government to function properly," the Prime Minister’s Office said. "President Katsav told Prime Minister Sharon that he will consult on the issue and inform him of his decision as soon as possible," it added.
LEAVING PARTY
It came shortly after Sharon announced he would leave his Likud party he helped found in 1973 to form a new centrist bloc to fight in early elections expected in March, eight months ahead of schedule. Sharon, who is still popular in Israel, has been criticized by critics within Likud for his decision to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza after 38 years.
Last week United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal on Gaza border
crossings in marathon talks with Israel and the Palestinians, scoring a rare breakthrough in Middle East diplomacy.
Access to Gaza is key to strengthening the impoverished strip’s economy and giving a boost to chances for peacemaking following Israel’s withdrawal from the coastal territory in September, commentators say.
ADVANCE GUARD
An advance guard of a European Union police monitoring force was expected to on the ground in Gaza as early as this week. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a vehement opponent of the Gaza pullout, was expected to be the top contender to become the Likud Party’s new leader.
"The very meaning of Sharon’s statement is that he is planning far-reaching concessions in the future and he knows that within Likud that is a non-starter," said Likud parliamentarian Uzi Landau ahead of expected party elections for a new leader. "We will do whatever possible to stop it. Mr Sharon means to withdraw from the Golan Heights, from the Jordan Valley, from Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and for the re-division of Jerusalem," he added.
"We won’t make it possible. As Mr. Sharon leaves us, this is a new start for Likud. New hope for Likud with clean politics, with ideology, with pragmatism," Landau said. At midday Monday, November 21, Sharon seemed undisturbed by the political infighting as he met at his office with 10 breakaway Likud legislators, who are expected to form the core of his new party, reportedly to be called "National Responsibility."
LABOUR REACTS
Yitzhak Herzog, a parliamentarian of the opposition party Labour, told reporters that "Sharon will shift in between all of these parties to try and accumulate voters for his own new party. The new development of the split in Likud will help us become perhaps the biggest party in the next election."
The political developments in Israel were closely watched by Palestinian officials, including Saeb Erekat, the Chief Palestinian negotiator.
"Usually we say this [kind of political tension] is an internal Israeli matter. Today I cannot say that, because when somebody sneezes in Tel Aviv I get the flu in Jericho," he added.
"I hope that once the dust settles down in Israel, that we will have a partner who is willing to re-engage in the end game, the end of conflict, in order to achieve the treaty of peace between Palestinians and Israelis, which I believe is "do-able".
CHRISTIANS DIVIDED
Christian Zionists are divided over which political direction to support. Last year American evangelist Pat Robertson, the founder of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) indirectly criticized Prime Minister Sharon’s policy to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
"God says, ‘I’m going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It’s my land and keep your hands off it.’" In other remarks, Robertson said he is worried about the US-backed Roadmap for Peace in the Middle East.
"It is set up now, with the United Nations, with the European Union, and with the Russians coming together in the so-called quartet, these are all enemies of Israel. If we ally ourselves with the enemies of Israel, we will be standing against God Almighty. And that’s a place I don’t want us to be," he said in a statement on his website.
DIFFERENT BORDERS
Not all scholars agree with Robertson, and some evangelical Christians and Messianic Jews believe that God’s Promised Land will have different borders.
Malcolm Hedding, the executive director of the Christian Zionist group International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, said earlier this year that the nation of Israel will inherit all the land God promised the Jews "when the Messiah comes [again]. Not before."
"It would be chutzpah for evangelical Christians—as we are—to tell where, or how, or when [Israel] should designate her borders," he told Christianity Today, a leading evangelical magazine. "It’s a matter of the timing of the Kingdom." (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Israel).
