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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israeli Party Leader Seeks Early Elections |
| 2008-10-26 |
| JERUSALEM — Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel ran out of options in her efforts to form a government and decided her only choice would be to press for early elections, now likely to be scheduled for February, party officials said Saturday night. An associate of Ms. Livni’s, Otniel Schneller, a legislator from her party, Kadima, said by telephone that after the ultra-Orthodox party Shas turned her down on Friday, the hope was that another religious party, Yahadut Hatorah, would join in addition to the leftist Meretz party. But while Meretz said yes, Yahadut Hatorah said no on Saturday, leaving her with too few votes in Parliament to govern comfortably. The move to elections effectively ends any slim hope that existed for a peace deal with the Palestinians before President Bush leaves office in January. Israel’s elections were due to take place in 2010. After consulting her closest aides at her home in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Ms. Livni called the Labor Party leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to inform him of the decision because he had agreed to join with her in a coalition. An associate of Mr. Barak’s said that he simply wished her luck. Ms. Livni has an appointment with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, on Sunday afternoon, at which she is expected to give him formal notice that she has failed to put together a viable coalition and favors early elections. Once Ms. Livni takes that step, the president can, in theory, ask someone else to try to form a government. But most politicians and analysts doubt he will do so. In all likelihood, he will take a few days or at most three weeks to tell Parliament that a government cannot be formed. Parliament will vote to hold elections 90 days later, probably in mid-February. It will be a high-stakes election, in which Ms. Livni is expected to face two candidates who have already been prime minister: Mr. Barak, of Labor, and Benjamin Netanyahu of the opposition Likud, the current front-runner in election surveys. Ms. Livni is expected to run with the message that she has been leading negotiations with the Palestinians and should finish the job. Mr. Netanyahu has told associates that he hopes ultimately to form a national unity government to face the country’s challenges. He is more hawkish than the other two. Mr. Barak is expected to assert that Israel should seek an overall settlement with all parties simultaneously — the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon — and that he is the candidate with the experience and strength to do it. |
| Posted by:Steve White |