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Barak survives no-confidence vote over Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has survived a no-confidence vote over the future of Jerusalem, against a background of mounting government instability with crucial decisions on peace moves still ahead.

Monday's vote capped a tough 24 hours for Barak, whose peace hopes suffered a setback on Sunday with President Bill Clinton's failure in a Geneva summit with Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad to salvage Israeli-Syrian talks deadlocked over the Golan Heights.

Parliament voted 50 to 30 with 13 abstentions to defeat the right-wing Likud opposition's no-confidence motion, which attacked Barak's peace policies as aimed at partitioning Jerusalem into Israeli and Palestinian sections.

Hardliners said the motion was intended to deter Barak from ceding villages near Jerusalem to Palestinian control in a future handover of more West Bank land.

In a series of votes in recent weeks, hawks have sought to take advantage of a smouldering coalition crisis pitting a main leftist party against the linchpin ultra-Orthodox Shas faction.

The feud flared anew on Monday, when Israel's attorney-general ordered a criminal inquiry into Shas's spiritual leader, who is key to Barak's peacemaking plans.

Ahead of the vote, thousands of supporters massed near the Jerusalem home of Shas Grand Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to protest against the decision to launch a police probe over suspicions the rabbi had incited violence against the head of the Meretz party.

Shas support is vital to Barak's goals of making peace with the Palestinians and Syria. It holds 17 seats in Barak's ruling bloc, which controls less than 70 seats in the 120-member house.

But in a deeply divided Israel, Barak needs all the backing he can muster for peace moves, a situation made all the more critical by the threatened collapse of the Syrian track.

Barak sought a deal with Syria, Beirut's main power broker, in part to back a troop pullout he has pledged by July from the occupation zone Israel has long occupied in south Lebanon.

He said the dispute over a land-for-peace deal now centred on Israel's claim to absolute control of the Sea of Galilee, the country's main water reservoir, and on security arrangements.

The talks were stymied for years over Syria's demand that Israel cede the entire Golan, taken in the 1967 Middle East war.

The fate of Jerusalem, claimed by Israelis and Palestinians alike as their "eternal" capitals, is among the most emotive of a brace of sensitive core issues the sides have vowed to tackle in sealing a peace treaty by a September target date.-Reuters