- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's
former leader Benjamin Netanyahu became foreign minister on Wednesday,
ending more than three years in the political wilderness with a pledge
to be tough on the Palestinians and an eye on the top job.
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- Netanyahu, ousted as prime minister in May 1999, joined
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government but vowed to challenge him for
the leadership of their right-wing Likud party and lead it into an early
general election.
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- Opinion polls show Likud winning the election -- expected
to take place in January -- which Sharon called this week after the center-left
Labour Party bolted his coalition in a spat over funds for Jewish settlements.
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- "The public seeks a way out of the country's quagmire
and the man to lead it out. I believe I have the way and the solutions
and that most of the public knows this as well," said Netanyahu, 53,
popularly known as "Bibi."
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- "Therefore my assessment is that I will be able
to lead the country in the future," Netanyahu told Israel Radio after
taking the standard parliamentary oath as foreign minister, a job vacated
by Labour's Shimon Peres.
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- Both Likud and Labour, Israel's two main parties, will
hold leadership elections before the national vote. Netanyahu said he would
challenge Sharon for the Likud leadership in a party primary expected within
a month.
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- A Knesset spokesman said a parliament committee would
vote on Monday to set an election date, initially expected to be January
28.
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- Netanyahu said he had discussed with Sharon a U.S.-led
peace plan calling for a Palestinian state after violence ends and the
Palestinian Authority carries out reforms.
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- On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell called
Netanyahu to congratulate him, and they agreed to establish a "direct
channel" of dialogue, the Foreign Ministry said.
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- Netanyahu's spokesman said the new foreign minister believed
the U.S. peace plan could be implemented only after the end of any U.S.
action against Iraq.
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- Labour's defection last week added political turmoil
to the woes facing Sharon's government, which was already confronting a
recession and the two-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.
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- POLITICAL CALCULATIONS
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- Sharon calculated that bringing Netanyahu into his team
would both curb his rival's criticism of the prime minister before the
Likud primary and give Israel an eloquent defender abroad of the tough
government line on the Palestinian uprising.
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- For Netanyahu, returning to government -- even with Sharon
as his boss -- brings him back to the public stage and gives him a high-profile
platform for his hawkish security stance and his recipe for reviving the
economy through tax cuts.
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- Netanyahu said he did not need a "long adjustment
period" and could handle the foreign ministry brief while campaigning
for higher office.
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- Israeli financial markets cheered the call for early
elections. Stocks and the shekel gained sharply on relief the election
race would not drag on until its previously scheduled date of October.
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- Palestinian officials and European Union diplomats expressed
concern that early elections would stir more turmoil in the Middle East
at a time when Washington is threatening Iraq.
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- Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said he expected
the election campaign to be dominated by a tougher policy on the Palestinians.
In a statement, he urged Israeli voters to choose a government "that
is capable of making peace."
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- Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said he hoped Netanyahu
would stick to accords he signed with the Palestinians while prime minister
from 1996 to 1999, when Labour's Ehud Barak defeated him in elections.
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- In an attack on Wednesday, a Muslim militant from the
Hamas group crept into a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and shot dead
two settlers before a security guard killed him. The armed wing of Hamas
said he was avenging recent Israeli killings.
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- Labour's primary is on November 19. Its leader, ex-Defense
Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, faces a tough challenge from two dovish
candidates -- Amram Mitzna, mayor of the Arab-Jewish city of Haifa, and
former trade union chief Haim Ramon.
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- 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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- At least 1,646 Palestinians and 625 Israelis have been
killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000 after peace
talks focusing on a Palestinian state foundered.
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