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Politics Resume With End To Battle

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Los Angeles Times

Published: January 26, 2009

TEL AVIV, Israel - A few hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared victory in the Gaza Strip, the hawkish contender to succeed him paid a visit to wounded soldiers and insisted that the enemy had not been defeated.

"We have a strong people and a strong military that dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, but unfortunately the work is still not done," Benjamin Netanyahu said before television cameras outside the hospital. "Hamas still controls Gaza."

That was only the warm-up. "We cannot show weakness against Hamas and its Iranian supporters," the opposition leader added. "We need a strong, unwavering, persistent hand until the threat is eliminated."

Israel's election campaign, placed on hold during the 22-day military assault, is back in full swing. And despite a wartime popularity boost for the center-left government's senior ministers, Netanyahu has emerged with his front-runner status intact - and new ammunition for his bid to unseat them.

The Feb. 10 election offers a stark contrast of scenarios as the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama considers how to try to forge a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians. That task starts this week with a visit to the region by its new Middle East envoy, former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell.

Netanyahu, a former prime minister, is manifestly less interested in negotiating an agreement on Palestinian statehood than is either of his main rivals. His closest opponent, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has led Israel's talks with the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for more than a year.

During that time Israelis became more skeptical of peace as Hamas, the militant Islamic group running Gaza, stepped up rocket fire into southern Israel. And that has helped Netanyahu hold a consistent lead in voter surveys before and since the Gaza offensive.

The intense heat of battle in Gaza, halted Jan. 18 by a cease-fire, has pushed the Israeli electorate even more to the right. Voters think more about protecting their nation from Palestinians, including the minority who are citizens of Israel, than about giving them an independent state.

"It's a paradox that, throughout Israel's history, whenever the left fights a successful war, the right gains politically," said Maya Yaakov, a close campaign aide to Livni. "We are a very nationalist people, and war brings our nationalist passions to the fore."

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

•Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against potential war-crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip. Israel fears its officers could be subject to international prosecution.

•Hamas official Ayman Taha said the Islamic group offered a one-year truce to Israel, including the reopening of border crossings to allow vital supplies into Gaza. Hamas rejected Israel's offer of an 18-month truce.

•European Union foreign ministers called on Egypt to do more to halt the flow of arms to Gaza, while offering monitors to help run the Egypt-Gaza crossing.

•Israel's Supreme Court ordered its government to allow free access to Gaza for foreign correspondents, rejecting a ban imposed even before the recent Israeli offensive there.

A wire report

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