On High Alert, Israel Heads to Polls

With police at their highest state of alert, Israelis went to the polls today in parliamentary elections held in the shadow of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s incapacitation by a massive stroke.

“Like everyone else, I want a change, and like everyone else, I’m tired of war,” said Gabi Seeton, a 51-year-old retired military officer who voted as soon as his polling station in the suburbs of Jerusalem opened. “It’s not about a particular leader -- they are here today, gone tomorrow.”

On the eve of the vote, the large lead held by Kadima, the centrist party founded by Sharon before his Jan. 4 stroke left him in a coma, appeared to be eroding slightly, surveys indicated. But high numbers of undecided voters also appeared to be skewing the survey results.

Kadima was still expected to win the biggest share of seats in the 120-member Knesset, but a smaller-than-hoped-for margin of victory would complicate efforts to assemble a stable governing coalition.

The vote pits Kadima, led by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, against the left-leaning Labor Party and the conservative Likud, led respectively by Amir Peretz and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Some surveys suggested that Netanyahu and the oncedominant Likud might be outpolled by the Yisrael Beiteinu party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, a far-right grouping with strong appeal to immigrants from the former Soviet Union. If that happened, Netanyahu might quit politics, stepping down as party head and giving up his parliamentary seat, political observers were predicting.

Although compelling issues are at stake, including Olmert’s plan to redraw Israel’s borders within four years -- uprooting many West Bank settlements -- the campaign has been characterized by a distinct apathy.

Few cars carry bumper stickers supporting one candidate or another, and the TV audience has been largely tuning out political ads, which in the past have gained a large viewership for being clever and funny.

The country traditionally has one of the highest voting rates among Western democracies, but turnout was forecast to be low by Israeli standards. The Jerusalem Post called it “the most complacent campaign in Israel’s history.”

Polls published Monday in the Yediot Aharonot and Haaretz dailies forecast that Kadima would win 34 seats, slipping from 36 predicted last week and down from a high of 45 when Sharon was stricken 2 1/2 months ago. Labor held steady at about 21 seats, and Likud languished in third place with 14.

On the Palestinian side, Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh took a conciliatory stance in a speech before the Hamas-dominated parliament in the Gaza Strip, saying his government would be prepared to talk with the so-called quartet -- the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

Israel has been dismissive of Haniyeh’s assertions in recent days that Hamas seeks an end to conflict with the Jewish state.

“We anticipated that Hamas would try to peddle ideas in which it doesn’t believe as a way to sweet-talk the international community,” the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told Israel Radio. “Let’s wait to see how the facts evolve.”

Palestinian lawmakers are to vote later this week on whether to approve the new Cabinet, made up largely of Hamas loyalists -- a foregone conclusion since Hamas holds a parliamentary majority.

Early Monday, Israeli forces killed a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad in an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. The army said the man was part of a group preparing to fire rockets toward Israel -- a near-daily occurrence.