JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's weakened right-wing government survived a series of no-confidence votes in parliament yesterday, saving Sharon from immediately having to call new elections.
Parliament voted shortly after an explosion detonated by a Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israelis and injured at least 30, including two infants, at a shopping mall in Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv.
Parliament confirmed Sharon's appointment of Shaul Mofaz, a former army chief of staff, as defense minister. Mofaz, a retired general known for advocating tough measures against Palestinians, replaces Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, head of the left-of-center Labor Party.
The votes gave Sharon more time to persuade other political parties to join the government in place of Labor, whose withdrawal last week left his coalition without a majority in the 120-member parliament.
Sharon has yet to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu, his chief rival within the Likud Party, to join the government as foreign minister. Netanyahu conditioned his taking the post on Sharon calling early elections, a demand Sharon rejected yesterday.
As a condition of joining the government, political factions on the far right are demanding that Sharon end his willingness to accept creation of a Palestinian state and that he exile Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
However, Sharon vowed to continue the policies of his previous coalition, by working toward a peaceful solution to the Palestinian conflict while simultaneously responding harshly to attacks. He suggested that after new elections, which by law must be held by October, he would welcome the return of the Labor Party as a coalition partner.
"To take this nation today to immediate elections is irresponsible," Sharon told a meeting of Likud members. "In the future, I will seek to form a national unity government. This has always been my position."
There was no response from Netanyahu, who served as prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and has made no secret of his desire to reclaim the post. Sharon's aides said talks would continue with both Netanyahu and the National Union Party to reach a compromise.
But National Union head Avigdor Lieberman said he would agree to join the government only if Sharon guarantees that it would retain its conservative character after elections.
"The prime minister and the people around him are trying to explain to us that this is an opportunity to establish a right-wing government," Lieberman said. "So it won't be good after the elections? If we are just a means to get through a rainy day, then why sit with the prime minister? If there is to be no national government after elections, why bother forming one now?"
Lieberman said that Sharon's partnership with Labor "didn't succeed in ending the war with the Palestinians. A right-wing government can increase the deterrence and then end the war. In order to hit terror, you've got to hit the heads of the Palestinian Authority so that they will lose their regime, their money and pay for it with their personal lives."
Nevertheless, members of Lieberman's party either supported Sharon in three no-confidence votes or abstained. The first and second no-confidence motions polled 51 of the 61 votes needed to force early elections; the third garnered 43.
Members of the Labor Party voted against Sharon's government each time.
"There has never been a prime minister in Israel's history who got so much support and did so little," said Ben-Eliezer. The Labor Party leader also voted against the appointment of Mofaz to succeed him as defense minister.
Mofaz was confirmed by a vote of 69-39, though critics complained that he lacks the political experience for the job and is moving into politics too soon after leaving the army four months ago.
The quick ascension of Mofaz, said Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Meretz Party, "creates the impression that Israel is ruled by a military junta. You can't run a state like you run the army."
But Tommy Lapid, a member of the centrist Shinui Party, backed Mofaz.
"At this difficult moment," he said, "I know that the defense portfolio is in the hands of a person who knows what he is talking about and not a politician who accidentally landed in the seat."
Mofaz was quickly sworn in, then left parliament to deal with the latest bombing, outside Arim Mall in Kfar Saba.
It was a day of considerable violence, which saw the deaths of eight Palestinians. Israelis troops killed three Palestinians suspected of planting a bomb near a settlement in the Gaza Strip. Two others died when their van exploded in Nablus, in the West Bank.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing in Kfar Saba, which occurred when the mall was crowded with evening shoppers. The group identified the bomber as Nabil Sawalhe of the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.
Police said the bomber tried to enter the Shekem Electronics store on the ground floor, next to a line of shops that open to an outdoor courtyard. A security guard who prevented his entry was struggling with him when the bomb exploded. The blast killed the security guard and a shopper, and injured nearly three dozen others.
"It seems that the alertness of the security force here prevented the terrorist from entering the shop, which would have caused a great disaster," Israeli police Chief Shlomo Aharonishki said at the scene.
The blast destroyed the interior of the store, scattering glass, debris and body parts and staining the stone courtyard with blood.
The town of Kefar Saba is near the West Bank, across the line from the Palestinian city of Qalqilya, which was under army curfew yesterday.
Israeli authorities warned yesterday that Palestinian militant groups are intensifying efforts to carry out bombings. Police said they had information about 57 intended attacks.