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23 Kislev 5761 - December 20, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Knesset Votes Against General Elections
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

The Knesset voted not to dissolve itself and hold new general elections. Former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that he will not run for prime minister since he would be unable to form a workable government with the current Knesset, and will also not run against Arik Sharon for leadership of the Likud.

The Knesset voted against general elections by 69 to 49, with the support of Shas and One Israel.

The so-called Netanyahu amendment was passed by 65 to 45 with four abstentions, enabling a non-Knesset member to stand for prime minister in these special elections. However, well before the vote Netanyahu announced firmly that he was not interested in the "strange law named for him."

Elections will now be held on February 6 for prime minister only, with Ehud Barak facing Likud leader Ariel Sharon. Regional Cooperation Minister Shimon Peres may also run and make the election a three-way fight.

Recent polls which indicate that Peres is the left-wing candidate with most support have encouraged the former prime minister, who would need the backing of 10 MKs from a single faction in order to submit his candidacy. The polls indicate that if Peres enters a three-way race with Barak and Sharon, he will move through to a second round showdown with Sharon, while the prime minister will be knocked out in the first round.

Arik Sharon, leader of the Likud since Netanyahu withdrew from politics after the last elections, leads Barak in the polls but his margin is much smaller than Netanyahu's and his chances of winning are much more uncertain. Sharon is much older than Barak, and is thought to be less moderate.

"Everyone knows that I could win," Netanyahu said, but insisted that the country's benefit is more important. "I have put all personal considerations aside," he maintained. Netanyahu argues that general Knesset elections are a necessity and will take place in a few months if not right now, so that it is clearly in the country's interest to hold them as soon as possible.

MK Yuval Steinitz, a close confidant of Netanyahu, said that he tried to convince him to run even in a special ballot only for prime minister, but that Netanyahu refused to reconsider.

Shas warned that the country would be sent into a "tailspin" if confronted with an all-out election campaign amid the current security crisis. Shas chairman MK Eli Yishai said the party preferred a Likud candidate for prime minister over Labor incumbent Ehud Barak, but that it did not make a difference who the right-wing challenger would be.

Some Shas party sources said that they disliked the perception that they had fallen prey to "a Barak trick," and played into the hands of his desire to keep Netanyahu out of the race.

It is widely believed that Shas would not gain the same 17 seats that it has in the current Knesset if new elections were held soon. Labor (One Israel) is also expected to decline. Thus these two parties have a strong interest in continuing with the current Knesset.

Chareidi leaders criticized Shas for not using their clout to ensure passage of legislation regularizing the position of yeshiva students. UTJ politicians were surprised and disappointed that they have been fighting for action on this front alone, while Shas has been concerned primarily with its own party interests. According to their assessments, the issue of drafting yeshiva students is tangential to the interests of most parties and it could have been pressed with the weight of Shas to a resolution. Though Shas has generally supported the position of the chareidi community on this issue, it has not thrown its weight behind it.

Trying to head off any possibility of competition for prime minister, Barak sent Meretz leader MK Yossi Sarid on a peace mission to Egypt.

The Prime Minister's Office announced that Sarid would be going to Cairo in the coming days to hold talks on Barak's behalf with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The mission will take place even as the Meretz executive is to meet on whether to field a peace candidate for prime minister. Meretz leader Sarid is a possibility for this, as is Regional Cooperation Minister Peres.

Barak plans to use private advisers to run his elections campaign, and there is criticism of him within his party for that.

Also, the Knesset will stay in session until the end of next week while it tries to enact voting reform before recessing for the upcoming election.

The recess was due to begin last Wednesday, but was postponed to enable legislation to cancel the system of direct prime ministerial elections to conclude its 14-day waiting period before it can be approved in the plenum.

Supporters of the initiative to revert to the single ballot system reached an understanding with Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, who also supports the proposal, on delaying the recess.

 

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