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Articles
By
Khalid Amayreh
Accredited -
Associated |
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The
winner is...: Polls Opened For
Israel's Next Prime Minister |
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Posted By Khalid Amayreh September 16, 2008
Members of the centre-right Kadima Party, the
leading faction in the Israeli coalition
government, on Wednesday began electing a new
party chief to replace outgoing Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert.
Olmert decided to resign last month
following mounting party and public pressure
spurred by the corruption scandal that has
been haunting him ever since he replaced
former prime minister Ariel Sharon in early
2006.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, former defence
minister Shaul Mofaz, Public Security Minister
Avi Dichter and Interior Minister Meir
Sheetrit are vying for the leadership of
Kadima with Livni considered frontrunner. Some
opinion poll projections give her 47 per cent
of the vote, well ahead of her nearest rival,
Mofaz, on 28 per cent.
Pundits think it unlikely that any of the
candidates will secure 50 per cent of the vote
in the first round, forcing the two leading
candidates into a second poll. They also
predict a low turnout among Kadima's 40,000
voters, which could play against Livni's
chances.
So far Livni has appeared confident that she
will easily beat her main rival, Mofaz, in the
first round.
"I have no doubt I am going to win, If I
didn't think I would win I wouldn't be running
at all," she is quoted as saying.
"My feeling of confidence doesn't come from
the polls. It isn't mathematics. I know I will
win because of the responses I get from people
I meet throughout the country. People who I
don't even know have come and volunteered to
help, just because they think I need to head
Kadima and become prime minister."
Livni said she hoped Olmert would declare
himself temporarily incapacitated which would
enable the new Kadima leader to replace him
immediately, even before the formation of a
new coalition government, a slow process
fraught with hard bargaining.
Mofaz, too, has been sounding confident,
projecting himself as more experienced than
Livni in matters of security.
"Despite everything that is being printed in
the media, I believe we'll have good results.
There is a huge gap between the way we feel on
the ground and the impression given by all
kinds of reports and polls," the daily Haaretz
newspaper quoted him as saying.
Mofaz, say Israeli sources, is hoping to
ensure a "strong showing" in order to be able
to secure a senior position in the next
Israeli government.
Both Livni and Mofaz were members of the Likud
Party before Sharon decided to form Kadima
three years ago.
There are important differences between the
two in matters pertaining to the peace process
with the Palestinians. Livni, who has been in
charge of peace negotiations with the
Palestinian Authority (PA), supports the
continuation of the peace process, which makes
her more acceptable to the international
community. She argues that Israel's "Jewish
identity" will be undermined unless a
Palestinian state is created on most parts of
the territories occupied by Israel in 1967,
and opposes the repatriation of a significant
number of Palestinian refugees and Israeli
withdrawal to the 1967 borders.
Mofaz believes that Israel should further
exhaust the Palestinians to the point at which
they would be willing to give more concessions
to Israel, especially with regard to core
issues such as Jerusalem, the refugees and
borders. He has argued repeatedly for
discussion of final-status issues to be
postponed until Israel finds itself in a more
favorable position and the Palestinians become
weaker.
Mofaz, considered by some human rights groups
as a war criminal for ordering the killing of
hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the
course of the second Intifada, has also
adopted a bellicose stand towards Iran, his
place of birth. A few weeks ago he said Israel
should bomb Iran's nuclear installations
before the end of 2008 with or without US
consent. He also opposes giving up the
Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, on the
grounds that the plateau is vital for Israel's
security.
Commentators in Israel believe that if, as is
expected, Livni becomes Israel's next prime
minister, the ruling coalition, which includes
the Labor Party, the ultra-orthodox Haredi
Shas and the Pensioners' Party, would remain
unchanged. In her desire to form a new
government as quickly as possible Livni might
even attempt to woo new members from other
political parties.
Tzippora (Tzipi) Malka Livni, born in 1958, is
the daughter of Eitan Livni and Sara
Rosenberg, both leading members of the Irgun
terrorist organisation. She served as a
lieutenant in the Israeli army and worked for
Mossad as a low-level agent for nearly two
years during the early 1980s. In 2005 she was
appointed as foreign minister, a portfolio she
held alongside the Justice Ministry.
If elected, Livni will be the second woman --
after Golda Meir -- to be Israeli prime
minister. Despite the clear backing of the
Ashkenazi establishment, few Israeli observers
believe that Livni could keep her coalition
intact if she decided to reach a final-status
agreement with PA leader Abbas that involved
Israel ceding all or most of the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem.
Such a move would see her government losing
its parliamentary majority and force a general
election. |
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