World

Israel Heads Toward Early Vote

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 12, 1998 / 11:28 AM EST / CBS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began campaigning early on Tuesday by ridiculing potential challengers as the country prepared for early elections.

Parliament on Monday voted 81-30 for early polls in a decision likely to unleash a flood of candidates for prime minister whose platforms left, right and center could reshape the nation's political map.

Netanyahu said he was not worried about losing the reins of his right-wing Likud party.

"I have no doubt that when we start the race, the 150,000 to 200,000 Likud voters will give me massive support. They don't like...all these fantasies and ambitions of all these people... They know very well that only I, at the head of the Likud, can lead the country," Netanyahu told Israel radio.

But a poll released Tuesday said respondents would prefer at least two potential challengers to Netanyahu in a nationwide vote for prime minister.

Monday's vote capped a stormy session of the Knesset, where Netanyahu's rightist coalition had fallen apart over the U.S.-brokered Wye River land-for-security deal he signed with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in October and then froze.

The Labor party opposition sponsored the election bill but Netanyahu's Likud party backed it in an acknowledgement that the embattled leader could no longer command a stable majority.

"This means that this government reached the end of its term. They lost the confidence of the people, of the Knesset and that means that the terrible policy that Prime Minister Netanyahu led here for 2 1/2 years comes to an end," said popular Labor party Knesset member Haim Ramon.

The bill will require two further readings to become a law, possibly as early as next week. An election date -- on April 27 perhaps, 1 1/2 years ahead of schedule -- was also to be set.

Netanyahu acknowledged he was considering April 27, but added he "did not rule out" the possibility of summer elections. He said he would examine the issue in the coming days.

Senior Palestinian officials insisted the Wye River accord, named after the venue outside Washington where it was concluded, must proceed despite the election. But they predicted Netanyahu would block it to try to boost his chances of victory.

"Having an interim government in Israel or anywhere in the world does not relinquish this government from its responsibilities," said senior peace negotiator Saeb Erekat.

The Knesset rejected an appeal by Netanyahu for cross-party backing for five conditions he had set the Palestinians for resuming the Wye deal.

These were that Arafat renounce his intentions to declare a state, accept Israel's terms for freeing Palestinian prisoners, halt incitement and violence, collect illegal weapons and accept Israeli demands for reciprocity.

On Monday, Israel said it would proceed with its obligations during the election campaign if Palestinians met the conditions, whih the U.S. has frowned upon.

The Palestinians say they have met their obligations under Wye, which requires Israel to withdraw in three stages from 13 percent more of the West Bank in return for Palestinian security guarantees. Israel carried out a first land handover last month.

The cabinet suspended the agreement on Sunday, formalizing a freeze Netanyahu imposed earlier this month as he wrestled to win back hardline coalition rebels opposed to giving up occupied land in the West Bank.

Shortly before the vote, opposition Labor chief Ehud Barak -- who served as Netanyahu's commander in one of Israel's most elite army units -- rejected a dramatic last-ditch call by the embattled prime minister for a 72-hour time-out to explore the chances for a national unity government.

Barak said he wanted to see a change of priorities with money going into education and jobs for all Israelis rather than into the Jewish settlements and ultra-religious seminaries of a few who had received funds in return for backing Netanyahu.

Netanyahu was elected in mid-1996 on a peace and security platform to a term that was due to end in late 2000. He will remain in power in a caretaker capacity with full powers in the run-up to an election.

The early favorite in the campaign appeared on Tuesday to be former army chief Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who has yet to make a policy statement, declare a party affiliation or even say whether he wants to enter politics.

It remained unclear how Shahak's plans would alter the fortunes of Barak, also an ex-army boss. Israeli media said he would head an independent centrist party. But Shahak said his lips were sealed as long as he remained in the army, albeit on retirement leave.

A popular member of Netanyahu's own Likud Party also indicated on Monday that he would enter the race. Centrist Dan Meridor quit as finance minister in mid-1997 in a dispute over exchange rate policy that was widely believed to have been politically motivated.

"It can be that the prime minister's promises will be kept...that 'yes' means 'yes' and 'no' means 'no'," Meridor said.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, another potential Likud challenger to Netanyahu and a relative dove among the cabinet hawks, said on Tuesday he planned to meet Arafat to try to ensure the election period would not damage the peace process.

At least two more candidates from within the Likud were expected to campaign for the top post.

Netanyahu beat Labor incumbent Shimon Peres by fewer than 30,000 votes in 1996 in an election held in a country reeling from the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and a spate of Islamic militant suicide bombings.