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Israel's Shas Party not to Attend No-Confidence Vote
Israel's ultra-Orthodox religious Shas party has decided not to participate in Monday night's parliamentary no-confidence vote, party officials announced Monday.
Shas, who holds pivotal 17 seats in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament), said in a statement that the party is against raising no-confidence debates while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is abroad for national business.
Barak is attending a three-way summit with US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David, Maryland, trying to reach a final peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Shas party officials said that although the party has resigned from Barak's ruling coalition earlier July and joined in the opposition factions since then, it has no plan to break the unwritten parliamentary ethic code to support a no-confidence motion while the prime minister is abroad and busy with state affairs.
Shas's absence from Monday's vote announced the de facto death of two no-confidence motions due to be discussed Monday night in the Knesset, which were submitted by National Union - Yisrael Beiteinu, and Herut - National Movement respectively.
The National Union - Yisrael Beiteinu is against the "security risks" to the country posed by the Camp David summit, while Herut- National Movement is against Barak's offer to "give billions of shekels to the Arab sector" in return to obtain their votes.
On Sunday, the major opposition Likud bloc, who holds 19 parliamentary seats, also decided to abstain from the no-confidence vote, which already reduced the chances of these motions to garner law-required 61 votes to topple the government.
Likud parliament faction whip Reuven Rivlin said that in spite of his party's lack of faith in the government, the oppositions should postpone the no-confidence vote "out of respect for the prime minister, who is abroad on state matters."
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