DUBAI, Jan 4: Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy today announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over differences with him on the issues of peace and social welfare, regional news agencies said."I plan today after this conference to send my letter of resignation to the Prime Minister. With all due respect... I am no longer a member of this government," Levy told a press conference in Tel Aviv.
Under Israel's laws, the resignation will become effective after 48 hours if Netanyahu accepts it.
Levy, 60, also said he would pull his five-member Gesher faction out of the eight-party extreme Right-wing ruling coalition.
The decision could plunge the Netanyahu government into its worst political crisis since assuming office in June, 1996.
The withdrawal of the Gesher faction from the government would leave Netanyahu with a wafer-thin 61-59 majority in the 120-member Knesset. "It is no good for the country, the society or the government," Levy said of his frequent
clashes with Netanyahu and other members of the Cabinet over the government's social welfare policies and the pace of the peace process.
The main dispute between Levy and Netanyahu in recent days was over the 57.5 billion dollar Israeli budget for 1998, which Levy felt did not include adequate funding for the poor.
On Thursday, Levy had, at a press conference, threatened to quit over this issue as well as the slow pace of progress in the peace talks with the Palestinians.
Levy had stayed away from a Cabinet meeting called today to discuss the budget and later said that the treasury had informed him of some concessions for low-income Israelis. But he dismissed them as ``hocus-pocus''. The budget has to be passed before March 31 by the Israeli Parliament.
The latest crisis comes at a time when the United States is making renewed efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross is due to arrive in Israel on Tuesday as part of a tour of the region. Netanyahu and
Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat are due to hold separate talks with US President Bill Clinton in Washington on January 20 and 22, respectively.
Levy was seen as an ardent supporter of the US-backed peace moves and had backed Washington's call for Israel to make a ``significant and credible'' troop pullback in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Cabinet had yesterday rejected Israeli proposals to start talks on the final status of the Palestinian territories without sorting out all the interim issues.
Netanyahu had suggested that the permanent status talks could be held after one additional troop withdrawal by the Israelis instead of the three required under the Hebron Accord signed a year ago.
``The implementation of the main issues in the interim stage is the condition for entering the final status negotiations,'' the Palestinian Cabinet said after a meeting. It said Israel must complete the three troop withdrawals under the US-backed accord.
Meanwhile, reports from Jerusalem said Israeli Defence
Minister Yitzhak Mordechai had threatened to resign if the withdrawal was not carried out.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
