you folks best start growing up and start thinking of what is facing the U.S. in this
decade. you who are of the jewish faith best stop and think about this.
your boys bill and al got one PM assassinated and brought 2 others down.
all because billy wanted peace in his time, you know that legacy thing.
if Ariel Sharon becomes the next PM the Palestinian leadership
will freak and Israel will be faced with the greatest internal security threat ever.
December 19, 2000
Netanyahu to forgo prime
minister race
By Dan Ephron
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu today pulled out
of the race to lead Israel, an aide said, hours after Israeli
lawmakers rejected a bill that would have scheduled
parliamentary elections in conjunction with already planned
balloting for prime minister.
Mr. Netanyahu's withdrawal
from the race leaves former Gen.
Ariel Sharon as the main
challenger to Ehud Barak in an
election that will set the course of
Middle East peacemaking.
Aviv Bushinsky, a close aide to
Mr. Netanyahu, a former Likud
bloc prime minister, told Reuters:
"He says he is withdrawing from
the contest for both the Likud and
the prime minister." Mr. Sharon,
the Likud chairman, "is the only
candidate," he said.
Mr. Netanyahu reiterated last night that he would not run
without parliamentary elections. His withdrawal followed
lawmakers' 68-48 vote against dissolving the Knesset.
Mr. Barak resigned earlier this month seeking a renewed
mandate for his peace policies.
The news came early this morning, after a stormy and
often confusing day in parliament yesterday, which largely
overshadowed the start of talks in Washington today. The
talks, though sure to be plagued by difficulties, generated
hope for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord after 11 weeks
of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"We are going to make the most thorough check ever
done in order to see if it is possible to arrive at an
agreement," said Gilead Sher, Mr. Barak's top aide and a
negotiator with the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, in New York, the Palestinian demand for a
U.N. observer force in the West Bank and Gaza was
defeated in the Security Council yesterday when the United
States, Russia and other key countries abstained, arguing it
could jeopardize the negotiations.
Only eight council members supported the resolution —
Bangladesh, China, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mali, Namibia,
Tunisia and Ukraine. Seven council members abstained —
Argentina, Britain, Canada, France, Netherlands, Russia and
the United States.
For more than a month, Palestinian supporters on the
council have been trying to mobilize support for 2,000
unarmed U.N. observers to be sent to the Middle East to
help stop the recent violence and protect Palestinian civilians.
But Israel remains opposed, insisting that negotiations
between Israel and the Palestinians are the only way to
achieve peace.
Israel's political drama began with a midday meeting of
rabbis in Jerusalem, spiritual leaders of the ultra-Orthodox
Shas party, whose support Mr. Netanyahu had been seeking
for a bill to dissolve parliament.
Mr. Netanyahu, former leader of the Likud faction,
wanted elections to be held for both prime minister and
parliament — hoping to capitalize on an Israeli mood swing
to the right that would give his and other right-wing parties a
greater proportion of the seats in parliament.
Polls showed Mr. Netanyahu coasting to an easy victory
over Mr. Barak. He led Israel through a failed peace summit
in July and a wave of Israeli-Palestinian fighting that began in
late September, so far killing 330 persons, most of them
Palestinians.
But the polls also showed Shas losing seats to Mr.
Netanyahu's Likud bloc.
When Shas' spiritual leaders announced the party would
oppose the bill to dissolve parliament, Mr. Netanyahu quickly
called a news conference to reiterate that he would not run
under unfavorable conditions.
"I will only run if there is also an election for parliament. I
will not run if parliament decides not to dissolve itself," Mr.
Netanyahu told reporters.
Mr. Netanyahu quit politics after losing badly to Mr.
Barak in elections last year and is not a member of
parliament. That detail under Israel's complicated ballot laws
bars him from competing in an election unless it was for both
prime minister and parliament.
To remedy the situation, Shas had sponsored a bill that
would remove the restriction, allowing Mr. Netanyahu to run
without forcing a parallel election for parliament. But Mr.
Netanyahu repudiated the legislation, calling it
unconstitutional.
Still, Shas persisted, hoping Mr. Netanyahu would come
around if the bill won approval. In late-night commotion, both
proposals — the bill to dissolve parliament and the bill to
allow Mr. Netanyahu to run — came to the plenum for a final
vote.
Lawmakers voted down the first one and passed the
second.
"I can't remember this kind of chaos in all my years in
parliament," said Shewach Weiss, a former parliament
speaker who served as a lawmaker for 18 years.
The results meant that technically Mr. Netanyahu could
still run, though doing so would constitute an embarrassing
about-face.
His Likud bloc was scheduled to hold primaries today.
Peace talks broke down months ago over the division of
Jerusalem, though the two sides were also at odds on the fate
of Palestinian refugees, the future of Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and Gaza, and the precise borders of a
Palestinian state. The weeks of violence have deepened the
mistrust.
Negotiators, led by Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo
Ben-Ami and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, will
begin today by meeting separately with American mediators
at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, but might hold
face-to-face talks in the coming days.
"This is an important first step," said State Department
spokesman Philip Reeker |
