Mr Ariel Sharon, who takes over tomorrow as Israel's Foreign Minister, intends to vote against the interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, with its central provision for a 13 per cent West Bank withdrawal, although he is supposed to be prominent in negotiating the deal, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem.
Mr Sharon, who is being charged by Mr Netanyahu with overseeing future talks on a permanent peace accord with the Palestinians, has let it be known that he does not believe such an accord can be reached for years, if at all.
By giving the Foreign Ministry post to the hawkish Mr Sharon (70), a former general and defence minister who has been fiercely critical of Israel's recent handling of the Middle East peace process, Mr Netanyahu has probably ensured that his multi-party coalition will hold together for at least a few more months. But he has also marked his government indelibly as hardline - unlikely to reach a permanent settlement with Mr Yasser Arafat, and even more reluctant to cede the Golan Heights for peace with Syria.
In the meetings that led to Mr Sharon's appointment, it has emerged, the minister-designate made clear to Mr Netanyahu that he continued to oppose the 13 per cent Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory that forms the core of the current US proposal for resuscitating the peace process. Mr Netanyahu has signalled to the US that he is close to accepting the proposal. This week at President Clinton's Mideast summit, Mr Sharon is to help Mr Netanyahu pin down the final elements of the deal. Nevertheless, should the deal be brought before the Israeli cabinet for approval, Mr Sharon intends to vote against it. Given his influence at the cabinet table, this could mean the deal would not be approved.
At Mr Sharon's urgings it is expected that the cabinet, in a pre-summit session tomorrow, will limit Mr Netanyahu's room for manoeuvre by imposing fresh conditions.
Although Mr Sharon commands some respect as a pragmatist, and has warm personal relations with Jordan's King Hussein and with Mr Arafat's deputy, Abu Mazen, most on the Israeli left share the assessment that he will push the government to more hawkish positions. The appointment, said Mr Yossi Beilin, a Labour Knesset member and one of the architects of the peace process, was "a bad joke, that shows the true face of Benjamin Netanyahu: no to peace, no to security, no to fresh hope".