Israel's Likud party candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to meet this week with the ultra-Orthodox parties in an effort to include them in his campaign headquarters, reported Haaretz newspaper, quoting the Israeli radio.
The report said that Sharon has promised the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties that if he is elected prime minister, he will not draft yeshiva (religious) students.
Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said Saturday he has pledges from both Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Sharon not to draft the students.
Avraham Ravitz from the (UTJ) party said that Sharon had made an explicit promise on this.
Last summer, Sharon voted against the Tal law, which essentially formalizes the arrangement whereby some 30,000 yeshivah students would receive deferrals from military service, saying his conscience would not allow him to vote for a law that could split the nation, according to the paper.
Sharon will however meet Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef this week.
Yishai said that if Sharon fulfilled a series of conditions set by Shas, "we will do everything we can to help him."
The conditions include continuing the draft deferrals for yeshiva students and the appointment of an education minister in coordination with Shas - which implies covering all of Shas's educational network's deficits, Haaretz added.
In the meantime, the paper added that Barak and Minister of Regional Cooperation Shimon Peres are scheduled to meet Sunday in an effort to reduce the tension between them.
Tension between the two men has been especially high ever since Peres announced last week that he planned to run for prime minister in elections on February 6. A candidacy that was short-lived after the left-wing Meretz faction refused to back him, the paper said.
However, Peres is not the only member of the Labor party deeply disenchanted with Barak.
Senior Labor figures including Interior Minister Haim Ramon and Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, who is seen as a potential future challenger to Barak, were absent from a weekend meeting of the prime minister's campaign team, the paper added.
A source told the paper that Barak "is attempting to draw Peres closer to him" and that the prime minister phoned Peres twice over the weekend to update him on the Washington peace talks and on the security situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
