The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was thrown into crisis Wednesday night after Israel’s parliament rejected the proposed 2005 budget and Sharon subsequently fired the five cabinet ministers belonging to his coalition government’s second-largest partner, effectively dismantling the coalition.The 69 to 43 vote against the budget and Sharon’s dismissal of the Shinui Party formally left the governing coalition with just 40 votes in Israel’s 120-member parliament, known as the Knesset. If Sharon cannot forge a new coalition, parliamentary elections might have to be held as soon as next spring, imperiling his plan to unilaterally withdraw Israeli troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank beginning next summer.Full Story
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