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Netanyahu lands backers on Knesset slate

Move could put pressure on Sharon; Labor votes Monday

Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a Cabinet meeting this month.
Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a Cabinet meeting this month.

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ISRAELI ELECTIONS
Israel will hold parliamentary elections January 28 to choose a new Knesset and prime minister. Here is how Israeli elections work:
• Every Israeli citizen 18 and over is eligible to vote.
• Electorate casts votes for party instead of individual candidates.
• Parties get a percentage of the 120 seats in the Knesset equal to the percentage of the vote they received. If a party were to win 10 percent of the vote, then the top 12 candidates on its party list would gain seats in the Knesset.
• After the election, the prime minister-elect has 28 days to build a coalition and submit a list of government ministers.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unsuccessful in his bid to unseat Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was able to place 10 of his supporters among the Likud party's top 31 candidates for seats in the Israeli parliament.

The development is significant because it could mean Sharon -- well ahead in the polls -- may face problems from his own party if he goes along with a U.S. road map for creation of a Palestinian state.

Likud chose its Knesset candidates Sunday in a vote by the 2,940 Likud central committee members.

None of the top 10 people behind Sharon on the Likud candidate list for the Knesset supports creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is No. 2 on the candidate slate behind Sharon.

Under the Israeli electoral system, parties get a percentage of the 120 seats in the Knesset equal to the percentage of the vote they receive. For example, if a party were to win 10 percent of the vote, then the top 12 candidates on its slate would gain seats in the Knesset.

The move by Netanyahu also puts pressure on Sharon to keep him in the job of foreign minister. There had been speculation in recent days that Sharon would dump Netanyahu in favor of Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, an old political ally.

However, while Olmert will be a candidate for the Knesset, his vote total was so low that he is No. 33 on the party's candidate list. Likud leaders have said they hope to win as many as 40 seats.

The Labor Party was voting Monday for its Knesset candidates from among a list of 83 people. Labor allows all 110,000 eligible party members to vote on the slate.

During the primary election campaign, Netanyahu rejected the creation of a Palestinian state and said his first chore as prime minister would be to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the West Bank.

After defeating Netanyahu in last month's Likud primary and winning the right to lead the party in the January elections, Sharon said he would accept U.S. President Bush's blueprint for creation of a Palestinian state if violence against Israelis stopped and Arafat was pushed into a ceremonial leadership role.

Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna, who will face Sharon in the January 28 national election, said the victory of Netanyahu supporters shows Likud is tilting further right, abandoning Sharon's more centrist views.

The dovish Mitzna will lead the Labor ticket in Monday's vote for the Knesset, followed by the man he defeated in the Labor Party primary, former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres, the former foreign minister.

Mitzna -- who has said that, if elected prime minister, he would immediately resume peace talks with the Palestinians -- predicted Labor would win "30, perhaps more" seats in the Knesset. But polls are showing Labor could win as few as 19 or 20 seats.

Likud party activists march Sunday during primary voting in Tel Aviv.
Likud party activists march Sunday during primary voting in Tel Aviv.

In a special election for prime minister in 2001, Sharon won by a landslide, but Likud had only 21 seats in the 120-member Knesset from the 1999 elections, and he was forced to form a coalition government.

Labor ministers were the largest faction in the Knesset with 25 seats. Sharon was able to form a national coalition government with Ben-Eliezer and Peres holding key posts.

That coalition held together for almost two years until Labor pulled out of the government in October in a dispute between Sharon and Labor over $147 million in funding for Jewish settlements.

Sharon has been an ardent supporter of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

Sharon tried to form a narrower government, negotiating with the far-right National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu Party. However, he rejected their demand that he take a more belligerent stance against the Palestinians and called for new elections.



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