Kadima leads with 28 seats

From The Australian, March 30, 2006, by Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent ....

THE surge to power of the fledgling Kadima party has set Israel on course towards the most dramatic shift in its 58-year history, the pullout of up to 60,000 Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank.

Kadima leader and Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be sworn in as the Jewish state's 12th prime minister after the party he inherited from fallen leader Ariel Sharon in January picked up 28 seats in the new parliament. The result fell short of Kadima's expectations, but gives it enough of a bloc to take a dominant role in the coalition that forms the next government.
Immediately after exit-poll figures were released, Mr Olmert claimed he had won a mandate to deliver on his key platform, the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank that would allow Israel to draw its final borders without consulting the Palestinians. However, after two months of uncompromising campaign rhetoric, Mr Olmert offered an olive branch to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, inviting him to take part in negotiations on the new border.

In remarks addressed to Mr Abbas, Mr Olmert said: "We are ready to compromise, to give up parts of the beloved land of Israel and evacuate - under great pain - Jews living there, in order to create the conditions that will enable you to fulfil your dream and live alongside us."
From the sidelines of an Arab summit in Sudan, Mr Abbas responded by urging Mr Olmert to abandon plans to set Israeli-Palestinian borders unilaterally. "The result was expected. But what is more important now is that Olmert change his agenda and abandon his unilateral plans to fix the borders," the Palestinian leader said.

However, Mr Olmert pointedly snubbed Hamas, which Israel refuses to deal with. The new Hamas Government said Israel would set a dangerous precedent by going it alone. "This plan is rejected by the Palestinian people," Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh said. But Mr Olmert said that if "the Palestinians are wise enough to act, then in the near future we will sit together at the negotiating table to create a new reality. If they do not, Israel will take its destiny in hand. The time has come to act".

The election marked the resurgence of the leftist Labour Party and a social welfare platform that had long been sidelined in favour of security and peace. Labour, under new leader Amir Peretz, picked up 22 seats, all but guaranteeing it will become Kadima's key coalition partner.
One of two surprise packets was the emergence of the Pensioners' Party, which is set to pick up seven seats in the new Knesset. The party campaigned solely on the rights of Israel's ageing population and has never before been a major political player.

....Likud slumped from 40 seats to 11 seats in the new parliament, all but relegating it to a minor party. At the same time, another right-wing party, Yisrael Beiteinu, soared to prominence, picking up as many as 14 seats. Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu said he would continue to head the party despite its poor showing.

In an election blighted by apathy, fewer Israelis than ever before turned up to vote. Only 63 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, in what many analysts believe was a protest at the choices on offer.