Rush Ballot In Israel's Likud Linked To U.S. Outlook

[Purveyor]

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM | Mon Dec 5, 2011 10:28am EST

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday for a snap leadership vote in his Likud party, a contest he is expected to win and which could pave the way for an early national election in Israel.

Some commentators said Netanyahu was quietly preparing for the possibility that President Barack Obama, with whom he has had a testy relationship, will win a second and final term in November, a year before Israel's currently scheduled ballot.

Freed of campaigning interests if he wins, the Democratic president could redouble pressure on the rightist premier to accommodate the Palestinians in peacemaking, deepening political division in Israel to the Likud's detriment, analysts predict.

"I wish to announce that I will request elections on January 31 for the leadership of the Likud and its candidate for prime minister," Netanyahu told Likud legislators at the open part of their weekly meeting in parliament.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/us-israel-election-idUSTRE7B40EL20111205

[Ken Burch]

1. As always, Bibi is committed to seeing to it that peace never happens

He wants the Israel/Palestine war to go on forever.

That's the only possible conclusion you can draw from his insistence on building more and more West Bank settlements, ALL of which he knows are illegal and all of which are designed to keep the situation inflamed.

Bibi is a disgrace to the country he misleads.

Hopefully, the voters in that country will do the sane thing and reject both Bibi's coalition and the just-like-Likud Kadima "opposition". Israel needs a whole new government, one that will make a complete break with the past decade's policies.