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Barak Throws Down Gauntlet With Shock Call For Early Elections
by Tanya Willmer
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak threw down the gauntlet Tuesday to political opponents critical of the way he has handled the deadly spiral of Israeli-Palestinian unrest, issuing a surprise call for new elections.
"You want elections? I am ready for general elections for the prime minister and the Knesset," Barak said in a strident speech to parliament, seizing the initiative from opposition MPs pushing legislation on early elections.
"The date will be fixed over the course of the coming days in coordination with the various parties," he said during an address that was frequently punctuated by heckling.
Barak had taken the podium in a fight to save his political skin after just 17 months in power and to find a formula for reviving peace talks with the Palestinians after a two-month wave of deadly unrest.
He lost his parliamentary majority in July, and his future was looking increasingly shaky after he failed to put together a broad-based emergency government to deal with the violence that has plunged peacemaking into turmoil.
Parliament later backed five opposition-sponsored early election bills after Barak made another failed last-ditch appeal to his hawkish political rival, Ariel Sharon, to join forces.
The election call is likely to see a return to the political limelight of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been streaks ahead of both Barak and Likud leader Sharon in opinion polls.
"The responsibility for the situation in Israel and the fact we are obliged to go to early elections at such a bad time is down to one man: Prime Minister Ehud Barak," Sharon told parliament.
The former defense minister reviled by the Palestinians for sparking the unrest with a controversial September 28th visit to a site in east Jerusalem sacred to both Jews and Muslims. His involvement in any government was likely to kill off any chance of peace.
A total of 292 people have been killed in the Israeli-Palestinian violence, although the situation Tuesday was calmer than it has been after the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan a day earlier.
"We are working to halt the violence, but there is no military solution to our problem with the Palestinians and, therefore, we have to keep the window open [to negotiations]," Barak said.
On the ground, there was a marked decline in fighting, although Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager in clashes near the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the first to be killed on the day.
Earlier, a Palestinian boy died of wounds suffered during clashes with Israeli troops in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip five days ago.
Some two-dozen Palestinians were also injured in confrontations with Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians described Barak's call for elections an internal matter.
"We signed agreements with Israeli governments, not Israeli parties," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told AFP.
"We hope we will see an Israeli government committed to the peace process and to implement signed agreements," he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said the earliest he could envision elections being held was next April.
Barak earlier had reiterated a proposal for a step-by-step peace agreement if the stalled attempts to reach a final accord in one swoop are finally deemed to have failed, and said Israel was ready to drop some restrictions on the Palestinians as a gesture for Ramadan.
But the Palestinians rejected the proposal, saying a comprehensive deal must be reached as soon as possible with international guarantees.
Barak in October called a halt to the peace process, although negotiations for a final agreement on the thorniest issues had been stalled since July.
And a defense ministry spokesman ruled out an immediate lifting of a two-month-old closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which bars Palestinians from entering Israel and has cut off vital economic supplies.
Meanwhile, in a case that could further strain ties between Israel and its oldest peace partner Egypt, prosecutors in Cairo announced that an Egyptian engineer and a former Russian officer were to face charges for spying for Israel.
Israel denied any involvement with the two.
The case comes a week after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak recalled his ambassador from Tel Aviv to protest Israel's "excessive use of force" against the Palestinians during two months of violent clashes.
Meanwhile, a five-member international committee of inquiry set up last month to look into the violence is due to depart for the region soon, according to its chairman, former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
In other diplomatic moves, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt met with two senior Palestinian officials in the Jordanian resort of Aqaba to discuss ways of "putting an end to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," a source close to the talks said.
The top Palestinian envoy to Moscow also said Tuesday that Russia has proposed holding an international conference to broker a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
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