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Labor leader Amir Peretz after meeting Sharon. (AP)
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| By Associated Press November 17, 2005 |
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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed Thursday to move up elections to early next year, kicking off a political campaign certain to freeze all moves to restart Mideast peace talks.
Sharon began meeting with rival party leaders Thursday morning to discuss alternative dates to the scheduled November 2006 ballot.
Labor Party leader Amir Peretz, who forced Sharon's hand by threatening to pull his party out of the coalition government, said the two discussed holding the vote between late February and the end of March. Yosef Lapid, head of the opposition Shinui Party, said he and Sharon agreed on a March ballot.
"On the one hand, we want to shorten the process, but on the other, we have to give time to prepare for elections, and so we agreed they would be in March," Lapid told The Associated Press.
Sharon spokesman Asaf Shariv said only that the prime minister wanted to hold elections as soon as possible.
Sharon plans to consult with other political parties on possible elections dates before a scheduled parliament vote on Monday on dissolving parliament, Shariv said.
Soon after the agreement to hold early elections was reached, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants outside the West Bank town of Jenin. Palestinian officials feared the violence would intensify in the run-up to the vote.
"I hope that the Israeli election campaign will not be marked by more Palestinian blood," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
The Israeli election campaign, combined with Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for January, would postpone efforts to build on the momentum from Israel's recent Gaza Strip pullout to restart peacemaking after five years of Israel-Palestinian violence.
Peretz, head of the second-largest party in Sharon's coalition, told a news conference following his meeting with Sharon that the prime minister agreed to choose an election date by Monday.
"I'm letting him choose a date between the end of February and the end of March, and whatever date he chooses is acceptable to me. The earlier the better," Peretz said.
Sharon's coalition had grown increasingly fragile in recent months because rebels within his Likud Party want him ousted over the Gaza pullout.
The call for early elections gained steam after Peretz was elected Labor leader last week on a platform that included pulling out of the government to force an early poll.
Peretz's victory left Sharon with little choice but to abandon his efforts to keep his government together.
"The moment it became clear to me that the existing political structure was breaking up I reached the conclusion that the best thing for the country is to have elections as quickly as possible," the Yediot Ahronot newspaper on Thursday quoted Sharon as saying. "If possible, we shall go to the people in February."
"In the complex and complicated reality in which the country finds itself, I have no intention of standing at the head of a minority government for months on end," Yediot quoted Sharon as saying.
Peretz, a union leader who opposes the Sharon government's staunchly free market policies, wants early elections as part of his plan to repair Israel's tattered social safety net and offer Israel's underclass an alternative.
Complicating the election landscape are the challenges Sharon faces within Likud, most prominently from former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some Sharon allies have been pushing the premier to quit his hardline party and form a new center party.
Shariv said he didn't not know when Sharon would decide whether to stay in Likud or bolt. Lapid said Sharon told him he would make an announcement soon.
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