Lawmakers in Israel Dissolve Parliament

A riotous Israeli parliament voted late Monday to dissolve itself and hold early elections, rejecting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of peace with the Palestinians and officially signaling the end of his embattled government.

Netanyahu weathered broadsides from both the right and left as he stood before the Knesset, or parliament, to defend his record and, as it turned out, launch his campaign for reelection.

Capping a day of political wheeling and dealing that was both dramatic and chaotic, the Knesset turned aside a last-minute attempt by Netanyahu to hold on to power by offering to form a “unity government” with his foes, and voted overwhelmingly to stage elections a year ahead of schedule. Final approval of the measure should come in the next few days.

Israel had already put peace-making efforts on hold, and the advent of a campaign season will freeze those efforts indefinitely--a prospect that immediately drew fire from the Palestinians.

The demise of the Netanyahu government had been building for weeks. His undoing, in the end, was the U.S.-brokered Wye River peace accord. The right objected to the deal. The left objected to Netanyahu’s failure to carry it out sufficiently.

Signing the accord in October made Netanyahu the first right-wing Israeli leader to agree to give away sizable chunks of land to the Palestinians. It was something his coalition of rightists, religious leaders and nationalists could never accept.

In fact, most members of Netanyahu’s swiftly collapsing coalition--and Netanyahu himself--joined in voting for early elections, giving lopsided approval to the bill. The measure must be voted on two more times in the next few days, and while anything can happen in Israeli politics, Monday’s 81-30 vote appeared to ensure approval.

Netanyahu put the best spin on his fate, vowing to come back a winner. He will remain in office as a caretaker with full powers in the run-up to the elections.

“So we’ll go to the people and let the people decide, and I’m sure that the people will decide correctly,” he told reporters at the end of the five-hour Knesset debate. “I am not afraid for my political future. . . . We’ll see massive public support for our positions.”

Netanyahu’s Likud and the rival Labor Party must now negotiate a date for the elections. Netanyahu has said he favors holding the vote in late April, after Passover.

Timing is critical because Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is threatening to declare an independent state on May 4. If elections are close to that date, Netanyahu can use the Palestinian threat as a ready-made campaign issue that would rally the same right-wing support that he counted on until now.

Momentum to topple Netanyahu’s government grew in recent weeks. As the prime minister’s coalition deserted him, the left also became increasingly disenchanted with what it viewed as Netanyahu’s abuse of the Wye pact.

His once skillful ability to weave and bob and appeal to many different factions began to catch up with him, and he lost credibility with both foes and erstwhile friends.

“He tried to fool all of the people, all of the time,” said Haim Ramon, the Labor Party Knesset member who sponsored the early election bill that succeeded Monday. “One day, he’d lie about something to the left wing; the next day he’d lie about something to the right wing. The common denominator of the extreme left and the extreme right now is that they feel lied to.”

Members of Netanyahu’s government, as well, essentially said they’d all had enough. Putting together enough votes on every single issue became a monumental task, they said.

“It made no sense to try to hold on,” said Meir Sheetrit, head of the Likud parliamentary faction. “From the right wing, they were trying to impeach the government. On the other side, a lot of people were trying to blackmail the government. We could not hold on.”

Netanyahu was elected to a four-year term 31 months ago, narrowly defeating Nobel laureate Shimon Peres, who had replaced assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. From the beginning, Netanyahu resisted the framework Oslo peace accords that he inherited from his Labor predecessors and only reluctantly fulfilled their requirements. For much of his government, he and Arafat were not even on speaking terms.

He has been criticized for reversing much of the spirit of trust that Labor had created with the Palestinians. On the other hand, he brought the right further into the peace process than many thought possible.

Some found the U.S.-schooled Netanyahu to be arrogant and abrasive, but he was also a master of glibness and charismatic sound bites. His natural command of English made him a regular on American television, where he effectively argued Israel’s case.

“It was not I who failed,” Netanyahu told Israeli television Monday evening. “The coalition showed certain signs of weakness and irresponsibility. What can I do? Am I responsible for every last Knesset member?”

The Knesset session that sealed his fate offered the kind of high theater that the institution is known for.

Wearing a yellow tie, Netanyahu rose to the podium to explain why he and only he could protect Israel from the Palestinians. Minutes into his speech, however, the heckling from Knesset members who weren’t buying it drowned him out until Speaker Dan Tichon was forced to temporarily adjourn the meeting.

When Netanyahu resumed his speech, 80 chairs on the 120-member Knesset floor were empty, and nine government ministers also stayed away. Most of those absent eventually drifted in, but the heckling continued.

“I insist that you tell the truth!” Binyamin “Benny” Begin, a hard-right member of Likud, yelled at Netanyahu.

“He doesn’t know the meaning of the word truth’!” screamed leftist Dalia Itzik, of Labor.

And so it went. Netanyahu dismissed all of his political opposition in one name-calling swoop, saying he could easily defeat “Left A, Left B, Left C and however many lefts we’ll have.”

“I’m sure that it will be a lot more convenient for Arafat to return to the days of the leftist government,” Netanyahu declared. “I can assure you that the first person who believes any alternative is better than Netanyahu is Arafat!”

Netanyahu then took on Ehud Barak, the head of Labor and a principal opponent in upcoming elections. He ridiculed Barak for hiring three American campaign advisors, saying he must need three because he has something to hide.

“Look who’s talking!” called out Eli Goldschmidt of Labor.

When it came time for Barak to speak, he too launched a veritable campaign speech, chastising Netanyahu for catering to “extremists” and neglecting Israel’s pressing social and economic troubles.

For all the attacks, though, the session was marked by an unusual amount of laughter and jocularity. Perhaps members were feeling relief that moves were finally being taken to break the government’s inability to govern.

Someone hung stickers in the Knesset halls that read: “Let’s go home, Sara”--an allusion to Netanyahu’s wife.

The election season is expected to bring forth a host of candidates, including Lt. Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former army chief of staff whose political positions are unknown but who has acquired a remarkable following. He apparently appeals to Israelis desperate for something different, embodied in the security that an army officer represents.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, will face a challenge for the Likud leadership. He has managed to win back support from Jewish settlers from the West Bank, who are most fiercely opposed to land concessions to the Palestinians. They returned to the Netanyahu fold when he suspended the Wye accord.

The Palestinians on Monday demanded that Israel comply with the Wye accord that it signed.

* A DIFFICULT TENURE: From the beginning, Netanyahu’s coalition was all but unworkable. A15