Word: netanyahu
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JERUSALEM: Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu's political future awaits a Friday count of some 154,000 absentee ballots. With 99.9 percent of the vote counted, Netanyahu maintains a razor-thin lead of a few thousand votes over Prime Minister Shimon Peres. In an election many saw as a referendum on the country's peace process, Israel appears almost evenly divided. An unofficial count shows Netanyahu with 50.3 percent of the vote to 49.7 percent for Peres. Israel's course toward peace has been pursued aggressively by both Peres and his Labor Party predecessor, Yitzak Rabin, assassinated last November. Netanyahu...
JERUSALEM: As Israelis cast their ballots in the nation's most important election in decades, local exit polls showed Prime Minister Shimon Peres with the narrowest of leads over Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The polls, conducted by Israeli television stations, showed Peres leading by just one-to-four percent, which means the outcome cannot yet be predicted. At stake is Israel's course toward peace, pursued aggressively by both Peres and his Labor Party predecessor, Yitzak Rabin, who was assassinated last November by right-wing rabbinical student Yigal Amir. Netanyahu has come grudgingly to accept the accords granting...
...results may not be available for several days, as absentee ballots are counted. At the Labor party headquarters Wednesday night, Peres' supporters sounded optimistic, but were careful not to declare victory based on the exit polling data. At Likud headquarters, workers were subdued, but had not given up hope. Netanyahu's supporters are counting on the momentum he gained in the final week of campaigning, rising by as much as seven percentage points in some polls. Exit polling also led Israeli television station Channel 1 to predict significant losses for both the Likud and Labor in Israel's parliament...
...than any other," says political scientist Aryeh Unger of Jerusalem's Hebrew University. "There's a postmortem charisma about Rabin that has pushed everyone toward the positions he espoused." Gadish, the floating voter, says the motives of Rabin's assassin account for some of his reservation about voting for Netanyahu. "I'd feel awful if Yigal Amir got what he wanted," he says...
Therein lies the weakness in Peres' current lead. Late last week a poll showed the Prime Minister with about 49% of the vote to Netanyahu's 45%. Wooing enough floaters to push him over the 50% threshold depends on a continuation of the respite from terrorism that Israel has enjoyed in recent weeks. Labor insiders confide they are extremely fearful Palestinian bombers will strike anew, especially given that security officials have evidence they are trying hard to do just that. According to a survey last week, most Israelis believe if there is no new terror attack, Peres will...