Labor Party

JERUSALEM - In an alliance of Israel's two most-experienced political figures, the Labor Party of Shimon Peres yesterday became almost certain to join the government led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Likud, and promised to support Sharon's plan to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Several procedural hurdles remain before a new coalition officially comes into being, but the new Cabinet could be announced this week. Labor's entry into the government would save Sharon from having to call early national elections and give him a far better chance of carrying out his plan to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza and dismantle settlements there.

THE IMPROVED prospect of Middle East peace is playing havoc with the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The leading candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, is facing a challenge from an imprisoned popular leader of younger Palestinian activists. Marwan Barghouti's last-minute bid for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority threatens the united front presented just days ago by members of the main Palestinian faction who chose Mr. Abbas as their presidential candidate.

JERUSALEM - Israel's parliament approved a plan last night to evacuate all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and several in the West Bank, the first time Israeli lawmakers have voted to relinquish land that Palestinians want for an independent state. The vote, 67-45 in favor of the withdrawal proposed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, came after 17 hours of often-harsh debate as thousands of protesters, pro and con, rallied outside the parliament building, ringed by heavily armed police.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opened a new legislative session yesterday and pledged to lay his office on the line by putting his controversial plan to close settlements in Gaza and part of the West Bank to a vote Oct. 25. Amid shouts and catcalls during his televised address, Sharon acknowledged the angst that his plan to withdraw from Jewish settlements is causing but pressed lawmakers "to make decisions using a broad national vision."...

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would enter the hospital today for treatment of an irregular heartbeat. Blair, 51, said the procedure was routine and would not affect his plans to seek a full third term in office next year, the first for a Labor prime minister. However, speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp., he ruled out serving beyond a third term. Doctors recommended the procedure, a catheter ablation, to correct a tachycardia, or accelerated heartbeat, that has bothered him repeatedly in recent months, Blair said.

TEL AVIV, Israel - The prime minister of Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat found themselves on rare common ground yesterday as they battled growing challenges to their authority from erstwhile supporters. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking here at a convention of his rightist Likud Party, faced down delegates opposed to his plans to withdraw Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and to invite the left-of-center Labor Party into his coalition government. Arafat, addressing Palestinian legislators in the West Bank city of Ramallah, made a rare admission that he and his aides had made mistakes that have fostered corruption and a near-total breakdown of law and order.

JERUSALEM - Israel's attorney general dropped a bribery case against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday, sparing him from criminal charges and clearing the way for his plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said there was "insufficient evidence" to charge Sharon with using his influence as foreign minister in 1999 to help a developer build a resort on a Greek island. The ruling rebuffed the recommendation by Israel's state prosecutor that Sharon be indicted.

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party suffered huge losses in local elections across Britain on Thursday, as voters expressed their anger about the Iraq war and their growing disillusionment with Blair's leadership. With about three-quarters of local councils reporting their results by late yesterday afternoon, Labor was set to finish third, behind the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties - the first time in living memory, the Press Association reported, that a governing party has fared so poorly in off-year elections.

Ariel Sharon JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented to a divided Cabinet yesterday his plan to evacuate Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, but he postponed a vote that could have toppled his government. Sharon intensified the showdown with opposing ministers by threatening to fire them. "I am determined to pass this plan, even if I am forced to change the makeup of the government or to take unprecedented political steps," he said, according to Sharon aide Assi Shariv.