WORLD> Middle East
Israeli PM-designate wants early elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-26 19:04

Livni has been serving as Israel's chief peace negotiator since talks were formally relaunched last November at a US-hosted summit. The sides had hoped to reach a final peace accord by the end of the year, though both Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have said that target is unrealistic.

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An aide to Abbas warned the Israeli political turmoil could threaten peacemaking.

"Time is precious. The next few months will be wasted because of new elections and the US elections," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

Livni could still try to put together a government with a narrow majority, but it would not have the broad mandate or stability needed to shepherd through a peace accord with the Palestinians that would require painful Israeli concessions. Israel is also holding indirect peace talks with Syria after an eight-year freeze.

Before Livni's coalition-building efforts faltered, opinion polls had given her and Netanyahu even odds on taking power. Although some voters might like her tough stand against Shas, her failure to muster a government could hurt her political standing while burnishing Netanyahu's.

Peacemaking foundered during Netanyahu's 3-year tenure as prime minister in the 1990s, and his positions have not softened since.

He quit Ariel Sharon's government because he opposed Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and opposes ceding sovereignty over any part of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as capital of their hoped-for state and insist on shared sovereignty over the city. East Jerusalem is home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.

The move to elections could propel Olmert, who is stepping down to combat multiple corruption allegations, and Abbas to redouble their efforts to achieve a peacemaking breakthrough.