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Israeli election gives green light to set permanent borders
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
JERUSALEM — Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima
party won a narrow victory in Tuesday's election, giving his government the go-ahead to set
Israel's borders with the Palestinians and evacuate Jewish settlements in
the West Bank.
With the lowest voter turnout in Israel's history of 63.2 percent,
former Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's break-away Kadima party won 28
seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Labor came in a close second with 20 seats,
followed by Shas, the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party which gained 13 seats, Middle East Newsline reported.
The fourth largest party was the newly-formed right-wing Yisrael Beitenu
which won 12 seats. The hawkish Likud, for three decades Israel's ruling
faction, took the biggest blow in the election with 11 mandates. The
national religious Ihud Haleumi followed with nine seats, the pensioners
party with seven, the ultra-orthodox Torah Judaism party with six and the
far-left Meretz with four. The three Israeli Arab parties — Ra'am-Tal-4,
Bala'ad-3, Hadash-3 -- gained a total of 10 mandates.
Announcing his victory early Wednesday morning, Olmert appealed to
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations over the
permanent borders of Israel. But, Olmert said, Israel would act unilaterally
if peace talks remained stalled.
"We are ready to compromise, to give up parts of the beloved Land of
Israel and evacuate under great pain Jews living there in order to create
the conditions that will enable you to fulfil your dream and live alongside
us," Olmert said. "If the Palestinians are wise enough to act, then in the
near future we will sit together at the negotiating table to create a new
reality. If they do not, Israel will take its destiny in hand. The time has
come to act."
In Gaza, the Palestinian parliament approved the new Hamas Cabinet
in a 71 to 36 vote on Tuesday. The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Ismail
Haniya, is expected to be sworn in today by Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas.
On Wednesday, Palestinian gunners fired five Kassam missiles into
Israel. No injuries were reported.
Copyright © 2006 East West
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