JERUSALEM – The centrist Kadima party emerged the narrow winner yesterday in Israel’s watershed election, with triumphant premier Ehud Olmert claiming a mandate to fix the Jewish state’s final borders and issuing an appeal to the Palestinians for peace.
The election dramatically reshaped the political landscape in Israel, handing victory to a party founded just four months ago and forcing Likud, the winner of the last election in 2003, into a humiliating fifth place. The front-pages of both the mass circulation Israeli dailies carried the same “Big Bang” headline, declaring that the outcome of Tuesday’s ballot had vindicated coma-stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision to quit Likud to form Kadima last November.With turnout at its lowest level in history, many voters gave their support to the minor parties who could now have a major impact on coalition negotiations, including the newly-formed Pensioners’ List headed by a former Mossad agent.Following an election centred around Olmert’s pledge to fix the borders by 2010 – a move which would involve the uprooting of tens of thousands of West Bank settlers – the acting premier issued a tempered plea to the Palestinians.”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,” Olmert told party supporters in his victory speech.”We will work to do this through negotiations, through an agreement with our Palestinian neighbours…There is no good alternative to a peace agreement.”The vote was held on the same day that Palestinian MPs approved a cabinet led by the Islamist militant movement Hamas, which advocates the destruction of the Jewish state and is branded a terror group by both Israel and Washington.”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.”However Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, who has warned that unilateral moves will not bring lasting peace to the region, urged Olmert to rethink his plans.”The result was expected.But what is more important now is that Olmert changes his agenda and abandon his unilateral plans to fix the borders,” Abbas told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab summit in the Sudanese capital.Hamas’s incoming prime minister Ismail Haniya was more blunt.”The Palestinian people cannot accept Olmert’s plan to fix the borders unilaterally,” he said.British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the first world leader to congratulate Olmert, saying he hoped a new government could “take forward the process of peace and reconciliation”.- Nampa-AFPThe front-pages of both the mass circulation Israeli dailies carried the same “Big Bang” headline, declaring that the outcome of Tuesday’s ballot had vindicated coma-stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision to quit Likud to form Kadima last November.With turnout at its lowest level in history, many voters gave their support to the minor parties who could now have a major impact on coalition negotiations, including the newly-formed Pensioners’ List headed by a former Mossad agent.Following an election centred around Olmert’s pledge to fix the borders by 2010 – a move which would involve the uprooting of tens of thousands of West Bank settlers – the acting premier issued a tempered plea to the Palestinians.”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,” Olmert told party supporters in his victory speech.”We will work to do this through negotiations, through an agreement with our Palestinian neighbours…There is no good alternative to a peace agreement.”The vote was held on the same day that Palestinian MPs approved a cabinet led by the Islamist militant movement Hamas, which advocates the destruction of the Jewish state and is branded a terror group by both Israel and Washington.”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.”However Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, who has warned that unilateral moves will not bring lasting peace to the region, urged Olmert to rethink his plans.”The result was expected.But what is more important now is that Olmert changes his agenda and abandon his unilateral plans to fix the borders,” Abbas told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab summit in the Sudanese capital.Hamas’s incoming prime minister Ismail Haniya was more blunt.”The Palestinian people cannot accept Olmert’s plan to fix the borders unilaterally,” he said.British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the first world leader to congratulate Olmert, saying he hoped a new government could “take forward the process of peace and reconciliation”.- Nampa-AFP
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