JERUSALEM -- Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy resigned yesterday, leaving embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a scant margin to govern and in greater need of his hard-line coalition partners.
Levy, among the most moderate members of Netanyahu's hawkish Cabinet, said he was fed up with the government's intransigence on the stalled peace process with the Palestinians and its perceived indifference toward Israel's impoverished citizens.
Levy, a Moroccan Jew and leader of the five-member Gesher faction, resigned in a budget flap over funding for social programs that would benefit his core constituency, lower-income Jews of Middle Eastern descent.
"I am no longer a member in this government," said the 60-year-old minister, who had threatened to quit six times during disputes with Netanyahu.
His resignation, which takes effect tomorrow, means Netanyahu's Likud-led coalition will have only a 61-59 majority in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, making it vulnerable to no-confidence votes that would force elections before the scheduled 2000 vote.
But Netanyahu didn't appear concerned by the margin. While he asked Levy to reconsider his resignation, Netanyahu predicted that his 19-month-old government would rule into the next century.
"The government will continue on its path continue to exist and continue to do what's necessary until the year 2000 or later," he said in a televised address last night.
Some political analysts and opposition members said the resignation of Levy -- who often was at odds with Netanyahu -- weakened the government. They suggested that Netanyahu would be more dependent on the hard-liners in his government who oppose the land-for-peace plan with the Palestinians implemented by the previous Labor-led government of Shimon Peres and the late Yitzhak Rabin.
But Netanyahu predicted that his government would win passage of the Israeli budget today. He also dismissed the suggestion that he might be forced to call new elections because his governing partners -- a coalition of conservatives, right-wingers and nationalist and religious Jews -- would disintegrate.
"I think this government will show it's far more stable than people think," he said.
Netanyahu also chided opposition leaders who took pleasure in the criticisms leveled against his government by the foreign minister.
