Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided Tuesday afternoon to dismiss the kitchen cabinet, consisting himself, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer.
The security cabinet, which includes the heads of the member-factions of the coalition government, will be the only policy-making body in the government, according to the prime minister.
Sources in the Labor Party said Tuesday that Sharon's decision was a "gesture" to the National Religious Party and Gesher Party, the latest hawkish parties to join the unity government.
The decision, meanwhile, would encourage the right-wing National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu faction to return to the government, the sources said.
Both Peres and Ben Eliezer are members of the left-wing Labor Party, the biggest with 24 Knesset (parliament) seats in the Sharon-led government.
Sharon's Likud, however, holds 19 Knesset seats, followed by Shas 17, Center Party five, Yahadut Hatorah five, National Religious Party five, Yisrael Be'aliyah four, Gesher three and One Nation two.
facing the possible resignation of the Labor in protest of the current hardline policy, Sharon must absorb more parties to join the coalition in order to ensure an absolute majority held by the government in the 120-seat Knesset.
The negotiations between Sharon and Avigdor Lieberman and Binyamin Elon, leaders of the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu partybloc, have been underway over the party's return to the coalition.
(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2002)
