Ariel Sharon Facing His Worst Political Crisis
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is facing his worst political crisis. His coalition government appears to be falling apart. The big dispute is over the budget, more specifically, money for settlements. Jerrold Kessel joins us from the Knesset in Jerusalem, where the action is set to take place. And I can hear the noise behind you -- Jerrold.</s>JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of action, Carol. But for the moment it's action in the corridors. This is another one of those slightly esoteric, slightly Byzantine Israeli political crises, the kind of political crisis of which Israel, the Israeli parliament is either famous or notorious, it depends on the way you look at it. But it certainly is a lot of excitement here, a good deal of turmoil. The vote for the state budget, which was supposed to have come up just about a half an hour ago in the plenum, has now been put off until four o'clock, that's in three and a half hours from now, while a good deal of behind-the-scenes negotiations goes on to try to alleviate this crisis. The issue in the crisis as the parties, the two principals in the national unity government, the Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and the Labor Party, led by the defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, seem to be splitting ways. That seems to be the issue, the direction in which things are going. But the issue is government spending or the priorities of government spending, both around the question of welfare of pensioners, funding for pensioners and, critically, the Labor party demanding that money be reallocated from the priority given to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and reallocated to welfare spending. That's the issue on the table and the question is, in Israeli parlance, is whether the two leaders who have gone up on mighty high trees can be given a ladder that's tall enough to bring them down from their perches. And that's what's the issue now, can they find a way to bring ladders tall enough to bring the two leaders down, to keep this government together? It looks like it's ending into a crisis, but it's an early day in the Knesset as yet -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right, we'll keep following it. Jerrold Kessel, thank you for that live report from Jerusalem. For more on this and other issues plaguing the Middle East, click onto our Web site. A special report entitled "Mideast: Land of Conflict," digs deep into the crisis. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.