Peretz puts his cards on the table: A meeting with Sharon this week or the government falls; Labor will not join a Likud coalition after the next elections; Arabs will be part of a Labor government.

Amir Peretz, newly elected Labor party chairman, said on Israeli television that if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not agree to meet with him in the next three days, Labor might topple the government immediately, forcing news elections.

"We need to finalize when the elections will take place. There is no need to talk now about passing the [2006] budget," Peretz said on the Channel 2 Meet the Press program.

"Sharon acted irresponsibly by postponing to this Thursday the meeting with me, but the age of marathons has ended. I know these political exercises and I intend to play my cards close to the chest. If Sharon does not meet with me at the beginning of the week, we might work to bring down the government on Wednesday," when the Knesset is scheduled to vote on four no-confidence motions.

Peretz added that National Religious Party (NRP) chairman Zevulun Orlev promised to coordinate with him his party´s non-confidence vote.

The Labor party chairman, who has led the national Histadrut labor union for several years, also stated that if Labor forms the next government, he would appoint Arabs as ministers because "this will reduce tension in the country."

Peretz also stated that if Labor loses the election, it would not be a part of a Sharon-led coalition, "even if I am offered to be Finance Minister." A coalition government is "a danger to democracy," he explained, but he vowed to support the government on surrendering parts of Judea and Samaria.

He was elected party chairman on the background of long-standing demands for social reforms, which Peretz said have become part of the national awareness since the expulsion of Jewish residents from the Gaza and northern Samaria regions. "They suddenly understood that the dream of a ´whole Israel´ is a dream that we paid a very high price for and ... has no chance" of being fulfilled," Peretz said.

Peretz defeated long-time Labor party leader Shimon Peres, who ended a 24-hour break in communications with Peretz and called him Saturday morning to say that he accepts the decision of party voters and he will not leave the party.

Reacting to Peretz´s statement, Likud coalition leader Gideon Sa´ar said, "The appearance of Peretz revealed to the public his extremist platform. His declaration to form a coalition with anti-Zionist Arab parties symbolizes the Zionist and moral bankruptcy of the Labor party." (IsraelNationalNews © 11/12/05)