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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Polls: Livni pulling ahead as Israeli elections brought forward
2008-10-28
Polls yesterday put Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, slightly ahead in the contest to be the country's next prime minister, but forecast a tight race when general elections are held in as little as three months. Livni, the new head of the ruling Kadima party, said on Sunday that her efforts to form a coalition government had failed, which means that early elections must be held. She is pushing to have elections as soon as possible - the earliest date would be January 27, a full year and 10 months ahead of schedule.

In recent months, most polls have suggested Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the opposition rightwing Likud party, would be the likely winner. However, polls in both the Ma'ariv and Yedioth Ahronoth newspapers yesterday put him slightly behind Livni.
Both we and the Israelis seem to have a death wish in our choice of politicians ...
Ma'ariv gave Livni's centrist Kadima party 31 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, against 29 for Likud. Yedioth's poll put Kadima on 29 seats, against 26 for Likud. While both polls forecast a tight-run contest, they both showed a sharp drop, to 11, for Ehud Barak's Labour party - Kadima's main partner in government for the past two and a half years. In the current parliament, Kadima has 29 seats, Labour 19 and Likud 12.

At the opening of the Knesset yesterday, Netanyahu made a quick start to his campaign with a sharply rightwing speech declaring that if elected he would ensure Israel kept the Golan Heights - captured from Syria in 1967 - as well as large parts of the West Bank and the whole of Jerusalem. His comments set up a contest over peace negotiations between him and the more centrist, ex-Likud member Livni, who favours continuing talks with Syria and the Palestinians.

Livni has faced some criticism in recent days for failing to achieve a coalition government without elections, but the polls suggest that her refusal to give in to the demands of other, smaller parties that were potential allies may have done her some good. "She apparently truly believes that there are prices that cannot be paid, that there are red lines that must not be crossed even for the sake of coming to power," wrote Nadav Eyal, in Ma'ariv. "To some, this may sound amateurish, almost surreal. For most of us, it is a refreshing change."
Posted by:Steve White

#1  At least we can all rest assured that whoever is elected will have more balls than Omelette.
Posted by: gorb   2008-10-28 07:12  

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