Sharon's Party Is Winner In Israel

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Israel Votes for New Parliament
Israelis went to the polls Tuesday to elect a new parliament -- and by extension a new prime minister -- after a campaign season marked by complacency, disappointment and a sense of betrayal among many voters now searching for new political leadership.

Under Sharon, Kadima was initially projected to win roughly 40 Knesset seats, a figure that spiked slightly after his stroke. Kadima activists were uncertain how to respond to Tuesday's results, and some focused on Likud's dismal showing rather than their party's less-than-overwhelming finish.

To build his coalition, Olmert could turn to Labor, Shas and the other ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, the dovish Meretz and the surprising Pensioners Party, which won seven seats on a platform to improve benefits for senior citizens. The combination would give him a broad government of more than 70 seats.

"The extremists in Israeli politics have lost today -- Likud, Netanyahu have been sent deep into the opposition," said Lior Chorev, a Kadima political strategist. "We have a duty to secure the state of Israel. This is the legacy of Sharon."

Many Israelis turned out to vote on Olmert's strategy, which he told supporters he would pursue only if he determines that negotiations with the Palestinians are not possible. He told supporters that "there is no substitute for a peace agreement."

"We will never turn our backs on our desire for those locations that were the cradle of our culture and where the dearest memories of our people exist," Olmert said in a passage of his speech that he addressed to the Palestinians. "But understanding the reality and understanding the circumstances, we are willing to compromise and give up part of the beloved land of Israel in which our best sons and fighters are buried, and to evacuate with great pain Jews who live there in order to create a reality for you, so you can achieve your dream and live side by side with us in a state of your own, in peace and quiet."

In the West Bank settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, residents filed into a small elementary school to reject future Israeli withdrawals from the territories.

Although Efrat would remain part of Israel under Olmert's emerging blueprint, voters such as Yehuda David, 70, cast ballots for the National Union, a coalition of nationalist-religious parties that is now the chief advocate of the settlement movement. The party finished with nine seats.

"There is an uncertainty here because of all the statements we've been hearing," said David, a retired Interior Ministry official who has lived in the hillside settlement since its creation in 1983. "We've been told our bloc would not be returned. But we don't know. We can't trust them."

Kadima's showing means that for the first time in Israel's 58-year history neither Labor nor Likud will form the next government, culminating a political realignment set off by the Gaza evacuation that analysts here called "the big bang."

Sharon argued that Israel must act alone to draw its final borders in a way that would separate a Jewish majority from the Arab population of the West Bank and Gaza. In forming Kadima, Sharon brought along a number of Likud leaders, including Olmert, as well as some from Labor. Among them was Shimon Peres, the Nobel Peace laureate who left after losing Labor's leadership to Peretz.

"The monumental choices this election was supposed to be about were actually decided beforehand," said Yaron Ezrahi, a Hebrew University political science professor. "This election came to be a measure of confirmation of this choice."

Party officials and analysts say more than 1 million voters -- about 20 percent of the electorate -- may have backed new parties this year.