PALESTINIANS: LIKUD WIN ENDS PEACE HOPE
Ramallah, 28 Jumadil Awwal 1436/19 March 2015 (MINA) – Palestinian leaders warned that the landslide victory of rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after campaigning against a two-state solution proved that Israel was no peace partner.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the elections results proved “that we don’t have a peace partner,” On Islam quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
“If the US is serious about peace, then it should pressure Israel,” Erekat said in remarks on official Voice of Palestine Radio.
“The whole world now should provide protection to the Palestinian people, including the US and the American Congress.”
With 99.5 percent of votes counted, Likud had won 29-30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats, Israel’s Central Election Committee and Israeli media said. A united list of Arab parties came in third.
The dramatic results followed four-day pre-election blitz after Netanyahu made a series of promises designed to shore up his Likud base and draw voters from other right-wing and nationalist parties.
He pledged to go on building settlements on occupied land and said there would be no Palestinian state if he was re-elected.
The last opinion polls published four days before the vote showed the Zionist Union with a four-seat advantage over Likud, Reuters reported.
“Reality is not waiting for us,” Netanyahu said.
“The citizens of Israel expect us to quickly put together a leadership that will work for them regarding security, economy and society as we committed to do – and we will do so.”
Radicalism
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials asserted that the results reflect a rise of radicalism among Israeli politicians.
Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, said the projected election results “clearly show the increase of radicalism in dealing with the Palestinians.”
He said the outcome “should be enough to convince the Palestinian Authority and Fatah party to forget about the choice of keeping up the absurd negotiations, pay attention to the internal unity and reconciliation and rearrange the Palestinian house instead of betting on a mirage.”
The peace impasse has added to strains between Netanyahu and the US, which was unusually critical of Israel’s role in the breakdown of talks. Israeli negotiators said Palestinian intransigence was to blame. While Palestine is not recognized as an official member state at the United Nations and other global bodies, it was upgraded to a “non-member observer state” in 2012, despite strong Israeli, American and British opposition.
Last December, the European Parliament accepted with a large majority a decision to support the recognition of a Palestinian state “in principle”.
The declaration of an independent Palestinian state has been gaining support across European countries recently. In the same month, French lawmakers voted also in favor of recognizing Palestinian state, echoing similar trend in Britain, Spain and Ireland.
A few days later, the Portuguese parliament adopted a recommendation calling the government to recognize the Palestinian state. In October, Sweden was the biggest Western European country to recognize independent Palestine. (T/P011/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
