ISRAEL: Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has deferred a parliamentary confrontation with disgruntled right-wing members of his ruling Likud party bent on toppling him.
Faced with defeat at the hands of party "rebels" still smarting over his recent Gaza withdrawal, Mr Sharon yesterday postponed a Knesset vote widely seen as the first of many internal political tests he will face in the coming months.
Ongoing party infighting and a surge of violence with the Palestinians have dampened peace hopes rekindled by Israel's unilateral move last summer to evacuate all soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Likud members who opposed the Gaza pull-out and claimed it would encourage Palestinian attacks had threatened to vote against the nomination of three of Mr Sharon's allies to the cabinet, due to be tabled yesterday.
A failure to muster majority support for the appointments on the opening day of the winter parliamentary session could have pushed the prime minister towards bringing forward elections, due next November. However, he bought more time by announcing his intention to delay the vote "for a week or so".
The veteran leader had planned to ask parliament to approve three cabinet nominees, including deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert, who has been acting finance minister since Benjamin Netanyahu resigned the post in protest over the Gaza withdrawal last August.
Mr Sharon has faced months of party dissent over his Gaza initiative and just over a month ago he narrowly survived an attempt by his arch rival, the hardline Mr Netanyahu, to oust him. He faces more parliamentary challenges this term ahead of party primaries next April, when his main challenger will be Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Sharon cannot count on long-term support from his main coalition partner, the Labour Party, which wants to push for higher welfare spending in the 2006 budget and faces its own leadership election next month.
The Likud Party wars come amid a sustained Israeli offensive in the occupied territories against the militant group Islamic Jihad, which carried out a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis last Wednesday.
The latest casualties, two militants shot dead during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank town of Kabatiya on Sunday, were buried yesterday.
At least 11 Palestinian militants and civilians have been killed in retaliation for the attack, the first deadly suicide bombing since Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.