Middle East: Ariel Sharon landed another hammer blow yesterday on his former Likud party, when defence minister Shaul Mofaz announced he was leaving the Likud and joining the prime minister's new party Kadima.
The latest defection from the Likud to Mr Sharon's party follows opinion polls over the weekend showing the Israeli leader's party growing in popularity, while the Labour Party is in decline and the Likud is imploding.
Mr Mofaz, who until yesterday was running for the leadership of the Likud but has increasingly fallen behind front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu in the polls, said he was leaving the party to join Kadima because the Likud was "drifting farther and farther to the extreme right".
Mr Sharon left the party last month, ahead of the March 28th election, because he believed that even if re-elected he would be shackled by Likud legislators who had opposed his Gaza pull-out and would oppose any further concessions to the Palestinians.
Mr Mofaz, who only last week accused Mr Sharon and his new party of dragging the country dangerously towards softer positions, yesterday became the target of stinging attacks from his former Likud colleagues.
Mr Netanyahu, who resigned as finance minister last August in protest over the Gaza pull-out, said those joining Kadima had "no morals, no principles and no ideals".
The defence minister is just the latest in a series of high-profile politicians to join Mr Sharon's new party. Last week Likud chairman Tzachi Hanegbi joined Kadima.
Days earlier, former Labour leader Shimon Peres left his party and announced his support for Mr Sharon.
The defections seemed to have further boosted the prime minister and his party.
The most recent opinion polls give Kadima 39 seats - up from 37 a week ago - in the 120-seat parliament.
Labour is declining, down to 23 from 26, and the Likud is in meltdown, on 13 seats as compared to the 40 it won in the last election.
There has been speculation about whether Mr Sharon will pursue his policy of unilateral withdrawal in the West Bank, but so far the prime minister has insisted that the internationally-backed "road map" is the way forward, not further unilateral moves.
His main challenger, Labour leader Amir Peretz, said yesterday that if elected prime minister he would reach a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians within four years.
Mr Peretz, who has expressed scepticism over the road map and its many interim phases - he prefers moving swiftly to final status negotiations - told the mass circulation daily newspaper Yediot Ahronoth that he would "work to reach a final status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians as soon as possible. The final status arrangement should be accelerated, instead of the road map."
Meanwhile, a Palestinian militant was killed yesterday when a grenade he tried to throw at Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank exploded prematurely, witnesses and the army said. They said the 18-year-old member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, attempted to attack soldiers scouring Balata refugee camp in Nablus for militants. Three militants were arrested, the army said.
Israeli troops often raid occupied West Bank towns in search of Palestinian militants.
Palestinians say the operations undermine efforts to maintain a ceasefire declared in February and restart peace talks. Israel says they are carried out to prevent attacks. - (Additional reporting Reuters)
