In the 1999 election, the Likud, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a major collapse, winning just 19 seats. In the prime ministerial election in 2001, Likud chairman Ariel Sharon won with an unprecedented majority, with around 62 percent of the vote. Toward the end of the tenure of the 15th Knesset, two lawmakers joined Likud: Roni Milo, who left the Center Party, and Yehiel Lasri, who left Gesher. Peace process Traditionally, the Likud has always been opposed to evacuating settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state, but the current party chairman says that if a suitable partner for peace talks can be found, he would be willing to make "painful concessions" and would support a Palestinian state - in direct contradiction to the position of the man who challenged him for leadership, Benjamin Netanyahu. Sharon and Netanyahu both support the erection of a separation fence, both say that Oslo is dead and both maintain that Arafat is not a realistic interlocutor. Society and economy In recent years, the Likud has altered some of its economic policies. At the end of 2000, after the government of Ehud Barak collapsed and special prime ministerial elections were called for February 2001, Likud refused a request by Labor to support the 2001 state budget. Five months later, the Likud supported exactly the same budget proposal when it was submitted by Sharon. The same sort of treatment was given to the Ben-Bassat tax reform, which centers on a proposal to impose a tax on real profits on savings, a tax on earnings from the stock market and other taxes. In May 2000, when the reform was first put forward by then finance minister Avraham Shochat, the Likud objected vehemently and Shochat was forced to withdraw the proposal. Twenty months later, in July 2002, the Knesset approved the second and third readings of the proposal when it was submitted by Likud Finance Minister Silvan Shalom. The majority of the Ben-Bassat proposals were included in the Rabinovich Committee's proposals, which formed the basis for the current tax reform. Similarly, it appears that political considerations directed the Likud's voting decision on the Large Families Law. In November 2000, the Knesset approved the second and third readings of the Large Families Law, which awards inflated benefit payments to families with five or more children. Shochat, who was finance minister at the time, objected strongly to the bill. Likud voted for, in part because it wanted to avoid clashes with the ultra-Orthodox parties. When Sharon was elected prime minister, however, he declared more than once that he wanted to nullify the Large Families Law. Eventually, the 2001 State Budget was passed without that law being annulled. In the middle of 2002, as part of the emergency economic plan, the government was careful not to cancel the Large Families Law, but, instead bypassed it and reclaimed the funds by other means. The issue is currently the subject of a High Court petition. It also seems that political considerations, rather than "the introduction of new priorities for encouraging economic growth in the Negev," were responsible for the Likud failing to cancel the Negev Law, despite the huge cost to the state budget of some NIS 1 billion per year. The cost of the law was reduced, but, fearing a backlash from Negev residents, the Likud did not dare to cancel the law or even to freeze it, as it had done with other costly laws. State and religion The Likud platform states that there will be no separation of state and religion; the status quo on religious matter will be retained; national-religious education will be reinforced; there will be equality between all education systems; independent education systems will be bolstered and yeshiva students will be afforded similar conditions to students in institutions of higher education. On the subject of yeshiva students being drafted, the Likud has changed its position depending on whether it is in government or in the opposition. In July 2000, when Barak was prime minister, Likud objected to the Tal Law at its first Knesset reading. In March 2001, after Sharon was elected, the party supported extending the exemption given to yeshiva students by two years, and in July this year, the Likud voted for the Tal Law at its second and third readings.