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Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 30, 2006 |
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The vanquished Likud, the most powerful party in Israel over the past three decades, watched from the sidelines as Ehud Olmert of Kadima, the winner in Israel's election, considered how to form a new government and implement his pullout plan.
On Wednesday, Kadima officials said they would need at least a year to finalize their plans for a pullout from Judea and Samaria, while waiting to see if the Palestinians' new Hamas-led Cabinet, which was sworn in Wednesday night, moderated its position toward Israel.
Olmert has said he preferred to set Israel's borders in the framework of a peace deal, but would unilaterally withdraw from most of Judea and Samaria, while strengthening Israel's hold over major settlement blocs, if an agreement cannot be quickly reached.
Such an agreement appeared highly unlikely with Hamas' rise to power. The Palestinian militant group, responsible for dozens of suicide attacks on Israel, has brushed off Western demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
Hamas officials quickly rejected Olmert's plan.
"Olmert's statement is a clear threat," said Nasser Shaer, Hamas' deputy prime minister. "He has his own plan, and he wants to implement it, whether we accept it or not."
Olmert met Wednesday with his advisers to consider how to go about forming a coalition government. Kadima won 28 seats of the 120 in the parliament, and it will need at least three other parties to form a majority government. party officials talked to each other informally Wednesday as pundits did the coalition arithmetic. Most agreed that the moderate Labor, with 20 seats, would be the prime candidate, along with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and the surprise of the election, the Pensioners Party. All three concentrated on domestic issues.
Few even mentioned Likud.
The party, abandoned by Ariel Sharon because of its opposition to his summer pullout from Gaza, is headed for the back benches of the new parliament. Its 11 seats out of the 120 in the house make it just the fifth largest party.
Likud's drop from 40 seats in the outgoing house was the sharpest in Israeli political history. More than a dozen of its members of parliament followed Sharon to Kadima, leaving Likud with a hard core of hawkish opponents of compromise with the Palestinians, a niche that attracted a relatively small number of true believers, translating into just a handful of seats,
Starting in 1977, when legendary leader Menachem Begin unseated Labor, which had ruled Israel for its first three decades, Likud has always been either in power, sharing power or leader of the opposition. Now many of the familiar faces around Cabinet tables, TV studios and newspaper front pages will be lounging in the back of the parliament chamber - or looking for work.
Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu was the most obvious target, the easiest to blame for the failure. He quit Sharon's government over the Gaza pullout, won leadership of Likud after Sharon left and then ordered the rest of the Likud Cabinet ministers to resign. They did so grudgingly, and now many are out to get even.
Three met Wednesday at the home of ex-Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to discuss the future of the Likud. Shalom, former Education Minister Limor Livnat and ex-Health Minister Dan Naveh would only hint afterward about their intention to dump Netanyahu.
"The immediate thing I am concerned with at this time is where the Likud is going, and that's what I spoke about," Naveh told Israel TV outside Shalom's house.
Livnat rejected an idea said to be backed by Netanyahu - joining forces with other hawkish forces in a right-wing bloc. "The Likud is a center-right party and has always been that way, and we need to preserve its character in order for it to return to be the governing party," she said in veiled criticism of Netanyahu, who led the fight against Sharon's pullout policy, positioning Likud near the political fringe.
Yuval Steinitz, who will be giving up the prestigious chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, told The Associated Press that Netanyahu will remain Likud leader for the next month, "but after that I don't know, it's up to him."
Steinitz said he supports Netanyahu, but he said the Likud needed "drastic reform" to restore it to its natural place at the head of the government table.
AP contributed to this report.
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