Netanyahu paves the way to early elections
Israel, Politics, 12/16/1998

Netanyahu has done it. He paved the way for his Monday declaration in which he will call for early elections.

In a meeting at the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu told his party members that the new challenges facing Israel in light of the upcoming final status talks with the Palestinians, he would set the firm terms of his government from now on. He said he would present those principles to the Israeli Knesset on Monday after the cabinet ministers endorse them in their Sunday session. If the Knesset does not accept those terms, he said, I will initiate new elections in which the people of Israel will have the chance to say their word and decide and "I hope that I will get the mandate I need to continue to lead this country." Netanyahu called on the opposition as well as on the coalition to support his principles for the upcoming era. But many observers in Israel believe the call came too late and has fallen on deaf ears. The Labor Party has no reason at all to throw a rope and rescue a drowning Netanyahu.

Netanyahu started his speech with a defeatist approach acknowledging, implicitly, that he does not have the power to tackle the responsibilities of the final status talks, because of the price that Israel will have to pay in return. He portrayed the conditions in Israel as tough noting that a wider consensus is needed to take the tough decisions. He said that he has no plans to carry on with the implementation of the Wye Accords, unless if the Palestinians carry out theirs. "I will not tear the Oslo Agreement into pieces as the right demands of me and neither will I carry out withdrawals as the left wants," he said.

Speaking after Netanyahu was his foreign minister Ariel Sharon said because of the current situation, which is mainly caused by problems from within, it is time to call for early elections. "We will go to early elections with very clear stands based on our intention to do our best to reach peace but the difference between this government and some previous governments is that we will not give even the smallest concession that touches Israel's security," said Sharon.

Once a decision to call for early elections is taken, Israelis are expected to go to the ballot boxes sometime in April next year, a month before the end of the interim period of agreements between Israel and the Palestine National Authority.

Labor Party member Haim Ramon said that Netanyahu was making up excuses to declare his failure not because of the challenges that he spoke of but because his ministers have lost faith in him over the last two years. "This government has no basic foundation to continue and its prime minister has lost the confidence and trust of his own ministers, including the senior ones. I will try my best that on Monday I will do everything possible to bring this government down," said Ramon.

Previous Stories:
  Palestinians warn: we won't implement Wye unilaterally   (12/16/1998)
  Netanyahu's government may fall on Monday   (12/15/1998)

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