Netanyahu announces candidacy for premiership
Member of Knesset and recently departed finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today his candidacy for the Prime Minister’s office, Haaretz reported. Netanyahu’s first challenge will be wresting the Likud Party chairmanship from rival and incumbent Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu accused Sharon of abandoning the principles of the conservative Likud, which Sharon founded in 1970. Netanyahu was a vocal opponent of Sharon’s recent pullout from Gaza, and the MK accused Sharon of aligning himself with Israel’s political left. Netanyahu’s decision comes as Likud party machinery begins to turn in anticipation of November primaries; Sharon’s ouster is seen as the likely objective of these internal party elections. It is believed that Netanyahu’s ascension to Likud leadership would cause Labor to abandon the current coalition government and dissolve the Knesset. Netanyahu served as prime minister from 1996 to 1999. He recently resigned from his post as Finance Minister in order to protest Sharon’s disengagement policy.
Barak: Labor should unite around Peres
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called on his party to back Shimon Peres, urging other candidates in the upcoming Labor primaries to drop out of the race and back the Labor leader, YNET reported. Barak said that if the entire party backed Peres and there would be no other candidates, he would himself drop out of the race. In an interview with Channel 10, Barak said that “Shimon Peres is far more preferable than Sharon and Netanyahu, and if the party gathers around Peres, it can rebuild a national leadership."
“I’m convinced that we must rally around one man. I’d prefer that it would be me, but I don’t know if it’s possible, and I’m prepared for it to be Shimon Peres. We must not pass up the opportunity that has presented itself before us, and we must not allow Netanyahu to be the next prime minister.”
Hebron-area settlers request pullout
More than two-thirds of the Hebron Hills settlement of Tene Omarim have petitioned the Prime Minister's Office and the High Court of Justice to evacuate them from the West Bank and relocate them to areas behind the Green Line, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Sixty of the settlement's 83 homeowners signed the petition which argued that the security fence, which meanders five kilometers south of their arid hamlet, would both funnel terror towards them and cut them off from Israel. "The wall will put us deep in Palestinian territory. We want to be Israeli not Palestinian," said Eliezer Weider. "Sharon promised not to leave isolated settlements on the other side of the fence and we want to be compensated. We want the same compensation as the Gush Katif settlers," said Weider.
Economic & High-Tech Briefs
* The ministerial privatization committee approved the joint proposal by Acting Minister of Finance Ehud Olmert and Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz for the privatization of Israel Military Industries (IMI), GLOBES reported. IMI is wholly owned by the State of Israel. For several years it has been in financial difficulties, and has undergone several recovery plans without much improvement in its position. The Government Companies Authority will carry out a public vetting of those interested in the sale, whether from Israel or overseas, and present the results to the Ministerial Privatization Committee within 60 days.
* Vice Premier Shimon Peres and the Igra groupare promoting construction of a $100 million hotel complex in Timna Park, GLOBES reported. The 300 75-acre project is planned to include facilities for events and entertainment, a shopping center, and an amusement park. The project would be designed to give an economic boost to the Negev and the Eilat Regional Council. She added that the project will create over 600 jobs directly, and hundreds more indirectly. The 400-room hotel would be the largest in Israel.
[Today's Israel Line was prepared by Tim Mosso at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.]