Word: netanyahu
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...same Palestinian and Arab public opinion that restrained Arafat from accepting the deal offered him at Camp David has hardened considerably following 10 weeks of violence in which more than 300, mostly Palestinian, lives have been lost. And with the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying a double-digit lead in opinion polls, Prime Minister Ehud Barak is unlikely to sweeten his offer. Netanyahu moved a step closer to overcoming legal obstacles to his candidacy Wednesday when Israel's parliament voted to allow any citizen to contest the special election triggered by Barak's resignation. The bill must pass two more votes...
...Netanyahu's popularity may be the surest sign that Israel is in no mood to make peace right now. He has already begun campaigning, playing on Israeli anxiety in the face of the renewed Palestinian intifada to charge that Barak's peace efforts have compromised Israel's security, and promising a return to his peace-through-strength philosophy. It may be a measure of the depth of their fears that many of the same Israeli voters who drove Netanyahu out of office only 18 months ago for his failure to make meaningful progress toward peace with the Palestinians...
...poll numbers are an eloquent testimony to the power of silence. After all, Netanyahu (like his pal Newt Gingrich) took himself off the scene entirely after his humiliating defeat by Barak only 18 months ago, and his support has grown largely on a wave of anxiety over Barak's handling of the Palestinian uprising. But he won't be able to translate that support into a comeback victory without the help of the legislature, or perhaps even the court. Netanyahu needs parliament to either overturn the special law under which Barak called the election, or else to proceed quickly with...
...Labor party have little interest in a new parliamentary vote - most importantly, the powerful ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which grew substantially at Likud's expense in the last election, but which may shed some of those gains in an election fought in the heat of a Palestinian uprising. And Netanyahu also has to dispense with the Likud incumbent, Ariel Sharon, who has no plans to step aside for a man who, while indisputably more popular and charismatic, is reviled even in important sections of his own party after leading it last year to its worst defeat at the polls...
...Peace with the Palestinians will be the central - perhaps the only - issue in the campaign. Netanyahu has denounced Barak for showing "weakness" in dealing with the Palestinians, and promises instead a return to his peace-through-strength policies. Barak is hoping to remind voters why they deserted Netanyahu in droves 18 months ago - precisely because he'd brought the peace process grinding to a halt. But Israeli voters have little enthusiasm for the peace process right now, even if a majority of them may ultimately accept it as a necessary evil. Early opinion polls suggest that no matter which personalities...