Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepared on Wednesday to form a coalition to fix Israel’s final borders after his Kadima party won an election which has dramatically redrawn the political landscape.
With nearly all votes counted, Kadima was poised to emerge the largest party in parliament only four months after its creation by Olmert’s coma-stricken mentor Ariel Sharon, although it did not secure enough seats to govern alone.
In a night of upsets which saw strong showings for a number of minor parties after the lowest turnout in Israel’s history, the right-wing Likud that has dominated power for three decades was reduced to a humiliating fifth place.
The main headline of both mass circulation dailies trumpeted the ”Big Bang” first triggered by Sharon back in November when he bolted Likud to form the centrist Kadima and promptly called an election a year ahead of schedule.
Sharon and then Olmert made it clear they would use their next term in office to set the permanent borders of the Jewish state with or without negotiations with the Palestinians.
Olmert’s separation plan could ultimately see Israel uproot around 70 000 settlers living in isolated West Bank settlements in an echo of the momentous pullout of the Jews from the Gaza Strip orchestrated by Sharon last year.
In return, Olmert wants to cement control over the big housing blocs which are home to the rest of the quarter of a million Israelis who have settled in the Palestinian territory since occupation began in 1967.
Asi Shariv, a senior official in the prime minister’s office, told Agence France-Presse that Kadima had already formed a coalition negotiations team, while President Moshe Katsav confirmed he would host a first round of coalition talks on Sunday.
In his victory speech, Olmert said he was ready to compromise in the quest for Middle East peace and urged the Palestinians to exercise the same spirit.
But the chances of progress in the moribund peace process appear remote with a Palestinian government led by Hamas — the Islamist group behind dozens of suicide attacks and which does not recognise Israel — due to be sworn-in.
Incoming Hamas premier, Ismail Haniya, made clear he would not accept a map drawn by Israel and the movement’s supreme leader, Khaled Meshaal, said the price for peace was Israel’s total withdrawal from Palestinian land.
With 99% of votes counted, Olmert’s party was set to win 28 of the 120 seats against 20 for the centre-left Labour party. Likud was dumped in fifth place with 11 seats, behind the ultra-Orthodox Shas on 13 and nationalist Yisrael Beitenu with 12.
The result means Olmert will have little option but to invite Labour into a coalition, as well as other smaller parties, including the Pensioners’ Party run by an ex-Mossad spy, a surprise package which netted seven seats.
Dov Weisglass, a senior advisor in the prime minister’s office, said there was a clear majority in parliament for Olmert’s plan.
”I believe that the coalition will be made up of or can be made up at least of those political bodies who can and will be prepared to support such a plan.”
While the result promises to usher in a lengthy round of horse-trading, only Olmert can put together a government whose aim is clear.
”We will strive to bring about the establishment of the final borders of Israel as a Jewish state with a permanent Jewish majority, and as a democratic country,” he told supporters in his victory speech.
”If the Palestinians agree to act soon, we will sit at the negotiating table in order to create a new reality in our region. If they do not, Israel will take its fate into its own hands.”
Moderate Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, who is due to swear in the new Hamas administration on Wednesday, urged the next government to work towards a ”negotiated” peace and for Olmert to rethink his plans.
”It [the new government] should change its attitude and adopt a policy based on a negotiated peace and international law,” he said in Gaza City.
Congratulating Olmert, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped he could ”take forward the process of peace and reconciliation”.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also called on Olmert ”to pursue all efforts to move towards a peaceful, negotiated resolution of the Middle East conflict”.
The Arab summit in Khartoum, however, endorsed a resolution calling for the rejection of Israeli action, including ”fixing Israel’s borders unilaterally in a way that fulfills its expansionist greed”.
Following a lacklustre campaign in which the result was seemingly a foregone conclusion, turnout was a record low of 63%.
The election dealt a humiliating blow to the tough-talking United States-educated Likud leader, former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who portrayed Hamas’s rise to power as a result of the government’s unilateral policy.
For Labour, which suffered its worst ever defeat in 2003, the election was a minor triumph. Leader Amir Peretz made clear he was willing to enter the government but is likely to insist on major economic and social portfolios.
Despite securing the premiership in his own right, commentators said Olmert’s victory was hollow.
”Ehud Olmert was given a punch in the nose,” said an editorial in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot. ”The voters accepted him and his plan, but did so with a decided lack of enthusiasm.” — AFP
