Sharon to Quit Likud, Form a Centrist Party, Aide Says

JERUSALEM — Beset by dissidents in his party, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has decided to abandon the conservative Likud and plans to compete in early elections as head of a new party, a Sharon spokesman said this morning.

Sharon met today with Israeli President Moshe Katsav to ask that the Knesset, or parliament, be dissolved, spokesman Asaf Shariv said. The move would trigger early elections, most likely in March.

“He will make an announcement today,” Shariv said.

Majalli Whbee, a Likud Party lawmaker who is close to Sharon, told Army Radio on Sunday night that the prime minister had telephoned him about his decision to form a new party.

Sharon’s departure from Likud and formation of a new party would represent a tectonic shift in Israeli politics and a risky gambit for the 77-year-old prime minister.

Though bedeviled by members of his party who opposed Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and small portions of the West Bank during the summer, Sharon remains the most popular politician in Israel. Still, analysts have noted that hurriedly formed centrist parties have not fared well at the polls in the past.

None of the previous bids, however, was by a sitting prime minister. Sharon gained considerable public backing by carrying out the Gaza withdrawal, and he could use a mandate gained through a new electoral victory to evacuate additional settlements in remote areas of the West Bank.

“We all know we are waking up to a new day,” said Whbee, who has been mentioned along with a dozen or more Likud parliament members who might join with Sharon in forming a new party.

A report on the website of Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s biggest-circulation daily newspaper, said Sharon had been preparing separate speeches in case he decided to reverse course and remain in Likud, which he helped form in the 1970s. Sharon had been scheduled to address a Likud gathering today.

This year, the prime minister pushed ahead with his plan to withdraw from all Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank despite vociferous resistance from right-wing figures allied with the settlers.

Sharon, once considered the godfather of the settlement movement, proposed the withdrawal as a way to reduce friction with the Palestinians and surrender land that he said Israel would be unlikely to retain in any eventual peace agreement. Opponents said the pullout amounted to giving in to Palestinian militants who have carried out a long series of attacks against Jewish settlers and other Israelis.

Sharon was said to be expecting 12 to 16 of Likud’s 40 Knesset members, including several Cabinet ministers, to join him in the announcement of the formation of a new party.

It is unclear whether Sharon would be joined in such a venture by Shimon Peres, the 82-year-old former leader of the left-leaning Labor Party. Peres was behind his party’s decision to join Sharon’s coalition early this year as a way to keep the government afloat long enough to carry out the Gaza withdrawal.

But Peres was unseated as Labor chief two weeks ago by Amir Peretz, who opposed the alliance and reached an agreement with Sharon last week to hold early elections.

At a Cabinet meeting Sunday, probably the last of the current government, Sharon praised Peres and said, “This is the beginning of the joint work between us.

“I won’t let you turn away from completing the missions you are destined for,” Sharon said. “I’ll call on your assistance in the future.”

Labor voted formally Sunday to leave the governing coalition, a widely expected move that virtually assured that elections would be held before their scheduled date next November. The Knesset was already set to take up a motion this week to dissolve itself in anticipation of early elections.

Sharon had grown deeply frustrated by the rightist dissidents in his party, and aides worried that if he were reelected he might be prevented from carrying out diplomatic initiatives or further unilateral pullouts as long as he remained in Likud.

Some pundits have speculated for months about a realignment in Israeli politics, often called the “big bang,” with Sharon bolting to form a centrist alliance, possibly with Peres and Tommy Lapid, the head of the vehemently pro-secular Shinui Party. Other scenarios envisioned a more modest reshuffling with Sharon at the head of a new party.

That speculation ramped up in recent days. Israeli newspapers Sunday carried reports quoting unnamed Sharon aides as saying that the prime minister had all but decided to abandon Likud.

By quitting Likud, Sharon “is liable to set in motion a political migratory process on a scale that the Israeli political map hasn’t witnessed since the day the state of Israel was founded,” journalist Shimon Shiffer wrote Sunday in Yediot Aharonot.

But commentator Ben Caspit, writing in the daily Maariv newspaper, suggested that the flurry of talk about Sharon’s departure could represent another round of political maneuvering by the prime minister and his operatives.

“Could this be, perhaps, the great-grandmother of all spins?” Caspit wrote.

Recent public-opinion polls have shown that Sharon, who is seeking a third consecutive term as premier, would probably prevail as head of Likud if he sought to keep the job. The party, which now holds 40 of 120 seats in the Knesset, would end up again with about one-third of the parliament if Sharon remained, according to the polls.

But those polls suggest that prospects are less certain if Sharon runs as the head of a new party. One survey indicates such a party would tie with Labor at 28 seats, with Likud well back in third place. That means a new Sharon party would probably need the help of dovish parties in order to cobble together a ruling coalition.

Sharon’s departure will also probably set off a scramble to fill Likud’s leadership vacuum. Benjamin Netanyahu, a Sharon rival and former prime minister, already had indicated plans to challenge Sharon as head of Likud. Others mentioned as possible contenders if Sharon were to leave are Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Some right-wing activists have urged formation of a bloc of rightist Likud members and smaller religious parties that have supported the settlers.

The reports of Sharon’s decision drew fiery reactions from his foes in Likud, commonly referred to as the “rebels.”

“After receiving so much by the Likud, the party which placed its trust in Sharon and made him prime minister, Sharon has betrayed this trust and taken off with it, going onto an extreme left path,” Michael Ratzon, a Likud member of the Knesset, told Army Radio. “It is a pity that such a great man will end his political career so small.”

Earlier, Peretz, the new Labor leader, essentially kicked off his own campaign with a speech before party activists.

Peretz, who heads Israel’s main labor federation, accused the Likud government of harming the poor with its free-market policies and budget cuts. He called on working-class Likud voters to support him.