MIDDLE EAST: The leader of the opposition Shinui party told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over the weekend that he would support the 2005 state budget, assuring a majority for the budget and removing one of the final parliamentary obstacles to the Israeli leader's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in the summer.
Mr Sharon will face one other hurdle today, in the form of a vote in parliament on the idea of holding a referendum on his plan.
In recent weeks, passage of the budget has become linked to Mr Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank. If the budget is not passed by March 31st, the country automatically goes to elections and the opponents of a Gaza pull-out - including at least one-third of the prime minister's own ruling Likud party - have seized on this, saying they will vote against the budget in an attempt to prevent a withdrawal.
But Joseph "Tommy" Lapid, the head of the 14-seat centrist Shinui party, which until last year sat in Mr Sharon's government, dashed the hopes of the anti-withdrawal camp Saturday night when he told the prime minister that his party would back the budget. Mr Lapid, who met the prime minister at his Sycamore Ranch in the southern Negev desert, said after the three-hour meeting he had decided to back the budget in order to save the disengagement plan. He said he had concluded that the plan was "in real jeopardy and we cannot endanger it." In return, the prime minister agreed to a budget transfer of around $160 million to several causes, including the needs of students, released conscripts and reserve soldiers.
Opponents of a withdrawal have placed one other hurdle in the path of the prime minister, in the form of their demand for a national referendum on a Gaza pull-out. Mr Sharon views such a demand as aimed at delaying and possibly even torpedoing his plan, since at least several months would be required just for the legislation to pass before a referendum could be held, meaning the summer pull-out deadline would not be met.