Ultra-hawkish list of candidates for Likud By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Dec 9, 3:00 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a setback Tuesday in his quest to reclaim the prime minister's office in Israel when his front-running Likud Party chose a slate of candidates even more hawkish than him.The outcome could weaken his party's popularity, and even if Netanyahu wins a Feb. 10 election, it could limit his ability to negotiate peace with Israel's Arab neighbors.The big winner in results announced early Tuesday was Netanyahu's nemesis, Moshe Feiglin. While Netanyahu opposes the current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and hopes to limit contacts to economic cooperation, Feiglin goes much further. His theocratic platform calls for banning minority Arab citizens from the parliament, encouraging non-Jews to leave the country and pulling Israel out of the United Nations.
Netanyahu, who resisted peace efforts when he was prime minister from 1996-1999, hoped to present a more mainstream list of candidates to bolster support for his party, backing popular ex-generals, politicians and others for the list.But party members instead chose candidates with uncompromising views, led by Feiglin, who founded a movement that blocked highway intersections around the country in 1995 to protest partial peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians.Others included the son of former Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Benny Begin. He told Army Radio there will be no (peace) agreement in the near future because of Arab rejection of Israel.Rivals did not hide their glee at the blow to Netanyahu's prestige. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Kadima, who is not seeking re-election, said the primary showed the Likud has become an extreme right-wing party that would lead the state of Israel to a corner of isolation.The election is set for three weeks after Barack Obama — who has pledged to work for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians — takes office as U.S. president.Even if Netanyahu intended to press for concessions to the Palestinians for peace — and many doubt he would — pressure from within his own party could stop him.Recent polls have shown Netanyahu's Likud with a 10-seat lead over Kadima, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. But they have also shown that the presence of Feiglin on the Likud list could scare away a significant number of potential voters. A Likud insider estimated a loss of three or four seats, while some analysts predicted even more erosion.
Livni reveled in Netanyahu's predicament. The Likud list is not my problem. It's Bibi's problem, she said, using Netanyahu's nickname. It's a weight around his neck, not mine.Even the most optimistic polls had Likud winning about 35 seats in the 120-seat parliament, forcing Netanyahu to patch together a coalition with powerful partners from the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-hawkish sectors.Losing even a handful of those 35 because of the Feiglin effect could drop Likud into a tie with Kadima, a centrist movement started by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who broke away from Likud because of its opposition to his unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. That would make coalition-building more difficult and long-term stability doubtful.
Israel's electoral system, based on voting for parties instead of individual candidates, lends itself to multi-party results and a fractured parliament.Over the past decade, traditional parties have been losing strength and sectorial parties have been gaining. After the last election, less than three years ago, Kadima formed a government after winning just 29 seats, holding less than a majority in its own government, a first in Israel.When Olmert resigned in September because of corruption charges, Livni was chosen to replace him but was unable to form her own government — another first. The resulting national election will be Israel's fifth in less than seven years.
Middle East Quartet to meet in New York on December 15 Tue Dec 9, 1:33 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators will meet at U.N. headquarters in New York on December 15, together with some Arab foreign ministers, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday.France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said last month it wanted a meeting this year of the Quartet, which is composed of the EU, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.Michele Montas, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told a news conference that representatives of the Quartet had talked by telephone and agreed to meet on December 15.The secretary-general is going to host the members of the Quartet and a number of Arab foreign ministers to a discussion, she said, adding she did not have a confirmed list of attendees at this time.At a meeting in Egypt on November 9, the Quartet strongly backed the talks launched at Annapolis, Maryland, a year ago by U.S. President George W. Bush, even though few expect a deal to be reached this year as originally planned.Bush leaves office on January 20, when Barack Obama will take over as president.The talks have been hobbled from the start by violence and bitter disputes over Jewish settlement-building and the future of Jerusalem. Political transitions in Israel and the United States have further delayed any progress.(Reporting by Claudia Parsons; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Ex-President Carter says Hezbollah won't meet him Tue Dec 9, 9:23 am ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Leaders of the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah have turned down a request to meet former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit to Lebanon that began on Tuesday, a Carter spokesman said.Carter had requested a meeting with the Iran-backed political and military movement, which is listed as a terrorist group by Washington, as part of a visit to assess whether his Carter Center will monitor a legislative election next year.I understand that some of the leaders of Hezbollah have said they were not going to meet with any president or former presidents of the United States, Carter said upon his arrival at Beirut airport, adding that he would meet other leaders.A Carter spokesman confirmed a meeting had been requested with Hezbollah, whose guerrilla army fought a 34-day war with U.S. ally Israel in 2006. They said they were not able to meet, Carter spokesman Rick Jafculca said.Hezbollah, which is also backed by Syria, has a strong following among Lebanese Shi'ites and is represented in parliament and government. Lebanon is expected to hold a parliamentary election by June.
Carter's Lebanon visit will be followed by a trip to neighboring Syria, where he caused controversy in April by meeting leaders of the Palestinian Hamas, which is viewed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.The meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal angered the Israeli government and drew criticism from the U.S. administration. Carter, who helped negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has also angered Israel by describing its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid.Carter's agenda in Syria includes a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, whose ties with the United States remain strained despite a recent thaw in relations with Western states including France and Britain.(Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
EU moves to boost ties with Israel Mon Dec 8, 2:39 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – European Union foreign ministers decided Monday to intensify relations with Israel while insisting that the Jewish state reach out to the Palestinians and Arab nations.The ministers, after talks in Brussels, said in a statement that they wanted to improve relations with Israel. But that had to be based on democracy, respect for human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, good governance and international humanitarian law.That included the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the statement, through a two-state solution.Monday's decision opened the way towards a first-ever EU-Israel summit in in the coming months, perhaps during the Czech Republic's presidency of the bloc, in the first half of 2009.That would lead to EU-Israel meetings at the level of foreign ministers three times a year, with each EU presidency able to invite Israeli diplomats to to EU security meetings held among ambassadors.The EU would also consider inviting Israel to take part in the civilian missions linked to its security and defence policy, the statement added.The European Union is the biggest supplier of aid to the Palestinian territories but it has little leverage in its dealings with Israel, which is amply supported by the United States.EU relations with Israel are one of the priorities of the Czech Republic when it takes over the EU presidency from France on January 1.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that no political significance should be read into the decision to boost relations with Israel.We also said .. that the deepening of relations with Palestine would follow, he told reporters, adding that it is a little more difficult with the Palestinians, because there is no state, so it will be more complicated.
Israel to delay Palestinian prisoner release By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 8, 7:05 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israeli officials said Monday they would delay the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners until next week because of a request by Palestinian officials.
They said the Palestinian officials had asked for the delay because President Mahmoud Abbas is out of the country and wants to be back in the West Bank to greet the freed prisoners. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.Abbas is on a Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Rafiq Husseini, a top Abbas aide, said Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, had not sought any delay, and that Israeli officials had not contacted his office over the delay.I can assure you Abu Mazen doesn't want to see these people imprisoned for one single day, he said.Abbas planned stops in Russia and the U.S. before returning to the West Bank, he said.The officials said the release, originally set for Tuesday, would now take place on Dec. 15.
The Israeli government had approved the release as a goodwill gesture to coincide with the Muslim feast of the sacrifice, which began Monday.The prisoner issue is extremely sensitive for the Palestinians. Israel holds more than 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, and virtually every Palestinian family has a relative, friend or neighbor who has spent time behind bars. Abbas has demanded the freedom of all prisoners.
Holy Land faces uncertain New Year by Ezzedine Said Ezzedine Said – Sun Dec 7, 5:57 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Holy Land enters the New Year amid renewed political uncertainty with snap elections looming in Israel and a deepening chasm dividing the Palestinian territories.Little more than 12 months ago peace negotiations were relaunched amid great fanfare at an international conference in Annapolis, Maryland, with both sides setting a target of this January for a comprehensive agreement.But now US President George W. Bush, who launched that bid for a Middle East peace deal seven years into his eight-year term of office, is making way for a new administration and the international diplomatic momentum has once again drained away.
Despite a dozen face-to-face talks with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and rather more meetings between their negotiating teams, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said late last month that not a single issue between the two sides has been resolved.Meanwhile, continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank has made a mockery of Israeli pledges to freeze settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, Abbas said.Now Olmert is stepping down to fight an array of corruption allegations, and both of the front-runners to succeed him after the early elections called for February have made clear they will take a tougher line on the parameters of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians.Hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, given a slight lead in opinion polls over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has said little about the renewed negotiations of the past year, instead giving priority to what he calls an economic peace with the Palestinians, an idea they have already rejected.The gulf between the Western-backed Abbas and the Islamist Hamas movement which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June last year has meanwhile widened with the collapse of Egyptian-brokered reconcilation talks in November.
Warnings by the Islamists that they will not recognise Abbas as president after his term of office ends on January 8 drew a theat from the Palestinian leader to dissolve the Hamas-dominated legislature elected three years ago and call snap parliamentary and presidential elections in the New Year.The Islamists have made clear that they will not allow new parliamentary elections to take place before they fall due in January 2010, and accuse Abbas of rounding up hundreds of their supporters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.2008 was a year of deepening internal cleavages in both Israel and Palestine, as politicians on both sides devoted more attention to their internal conflict than their bilateral one, said Nicolas Pelham of Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank.Israel struggled with its religious settlers refusing to relinquish their presence in the heart of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority struggled with Hamas consolidating its hold over Gaza, he said.The failure to resolve either by peaceful means and the mounting narrative of confrontation could spell a turbulent 2009.Despite international promises of seven billion dollars in aid over three years, the economy of the West Bank continues to stagnate while that of the Gaza Strip is in freefall amid a crippling Israeli blockade.The hundreds of Israeli army roadblocks that impede the movement of goods or people around the West Bank have prevented any takeoff in the territory's economy, the World Bank reported in October.Israel's opening of its border crossings with Gaza for just four days in as many weeks has created a hand-to-mouth existence for the territory's 1.5 million-strong population, more than half of whom are dependent on outside aid, UN officials have said.It is like working to serve a population of one million refugees with hands tied in the back, Filippo Grandi, deputy commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, said last month.A June truce between Israel and Hamas was supposed to lead to an easing of the blockade, but Israel says militant groups have failed to respect it and it runs out on December 19. Political analyst Zakaria Al-Qaq said he saw little prospect of much improvement in Palestinian fortunes in the New Year. The negotiations have been fruitless. The Jewish settlements have continued to grow and the number of army roadblocks has topped 600, Qaq said. He said he was pessimistic about the chances of any swift end to the rift between Abbas and Hamas, but also played down the chances of the president carrying out his threat to call early elections in defiance of the Islamists. That would seal the schism between the West Bank and Gaza once and for all, Qaq said.
