- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hours
after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called early elections, right-wing challenger
Benjamin Netanyahu launched his own campaign to lead Israel, vowing to
get tough on the Palestinians.
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- Appearing on television, Netanyahu wasted no time flashing
his hawkish credentials in the run-up to a Likud Party vote that will decide
which of the two men heads the party list in a general election expected
on January 28.
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- Netanyahu, 53, is due to be sworn in on Wednesday as
foreign minister in Sharon's minority government, returning to a political
stage he largely abandoned after the Labor Party's Ehud Barak ousted him
as prime minister in a 1999 election.
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- Sharon, 74, announced on Tuesday he was calling an early
general election after the center-left Labor Party, including Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres, left his coalition last week in a dispute over funding for
Jewish settlements on occupied land.
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- Palestinian officials and European Union diplomats voiced
concern Sharon's decision to hold elections nine months ahead of schedule
would stir more turmoil in the Middle East at a time when Washington is
threatening war with Iraq.
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- "This puts off any serious peace effort before the
elections...Israeli political infighting, both between the parties and
within each of the parties, will make progress impossible for now,"
the EU diplomat said.
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- A parliamentary committee was to set the election date
on Wednesday -- with January 28 the likeliest choice.
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- Before the nationwide vote, Israel's two main parties
-- Sharon's right-wing Likud and Labor -- will hold leadership elections.
Netanyahu said he would challenge Sharon for the Likud leadership in a
party primary expected within a month.
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- NO PLO "TERROR STATE"
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- Netanyahu told Israeli television on Tuesday he had discussed
with Sharon a U.S.-led "roadmap" for peacemaking calling for
a Palestinian state after violence ends and the Palestinian Authority carries
out democratic reform.
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- "My views are clear...and the prime minister knew
my views when he invited me (into government)," Netanyahu told Israel's
Channel One. "But I will promise you one thing...by the end of 2003
there will not be a PLO terror state created here."
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- "Our immediate problem today isn't the political
problem with the Palestinians because there we simply need to end the process
of conquering terror, not conquering the territory, but conquering the
terror," he said.
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- "Afterwards we can be free for the political issue."
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- Opinion polls show the two Likud heavyweights in a tight
race, with Netanyahu seeking to counter Sharon's appeal to voters with
a tougher platform on the Palestinians and proposed economic changes to
rouse the economy out of recession.
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- In any case, political commentators forecast Likud would
become Israel's largest party in the vote, buoyed by a shift to the right
in Israel in response to Palestinian suicide bombings.
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- Labor, led by former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,
has its primary on November 19. He faces a tough challenge from two dovish
candidates -- Amram Mitzna, mayor of the Arab-Jewish city of Haifa, and
former trade unions chief Haim Ramon.
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- Sharon had resisted an early election, saying the timing
was wrong when Israel faced deep recession, the uprising and war clouds
hanging over the Gulf. Under Israeli law, he was obliged to call an election
only by October 2003.
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- But Sharon said his desire to preserve a "special
relationship" with Washington was a main factor in deciding to end
efforts to woo ultranationalist parties -- which he accused of "political
blackmail" -- into a right-wing government.
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