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Israeli Party To Seek Early Vote

The New York Times

Published: October 26, 2008

JERUSALEM - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel ran out of options in her efforts to form a government and decided her only choice would be to press for early elections, now likely to be scheduled for February, party officials said Saturday night.

An associate of Livni's, Otniel Schneller, a legislator from her party, Kadima, said by telephone that after the ultra-Orthodox party Shas turned her down Friday, the hope was that another religious party, Yahadut Hatorah, would join in addition to the left-wing Meretz party. Although Meretz said yes, Yahadut Hatorah said no Saturday, leaving her with too few votes in parliament to govern comfortably.

The move to elections effectively ends any slim hope that existed for a peace deal with the Palestinians before President Bush leaves office in January. Israel's elections were due in 2010.

After consulting her closest aides at her home in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Livni called the Labor Party leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to inform him of the decision because he had agreed to join with her in a coalition. An associate of Barak's said that he simply wished her luck.

Livni has an appointment today with Israel's president, Shimon Peres, at which she is expected to give him formal notice that she has failed to put together a viable coalition and favors early elections. Once Livni takes that step, the president can, in theory, ask someone else to try to form a government. But most politicians and analysts doubt he will do so.

In all likelihood, he will take a few days or at most three weeks to tell the parliament that a government cannot be formed. Parliament will vote to hold elections 90 days later, probably in mid-February.

It will be a high-stakes election, in which Livni is expected to face two candidates who have already been prime minister: Barak, of Labor, and Benjamin Netanyahu, of the opposition Likud, the front-runner in election surveys.

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