Former General Declares Candidacy in Israel

Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a silver-haired former general who has emerged as a figure of hope for the Israeli public, formally announced his candidacy for prime minister Wednesday at the head of a still-unnamed centrist party.

Thirteen days after turning in his uniform, the 54-year-old political newcomer lifted a tightly closed curtain on his political views, staking out broad, relatively safe positions on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, negotiations with Syria and the stalemate in Lebanon.

The former army chief of staff also launched an impassioned assault on his former boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that the Israeli leader has become a “danger to Israel” during his 31 months in office.

“Netanyahu must go,” Shahak declared during a one-hour news conference that was broadcast live on Israeli television and radio.

He blamed Netanyahu for a litany of problems affecting the nation, from the slow pace of peacemaking to the rising rate of ethnic violence. And he accused the prime minister of exploiting deep divisions in Israeli society--between left and right, religious and secular, Israeli and Arab--for political gain.

“The alternatives in the next elections are simple: a choice between change and national reconciliation, or the worsening of the internal war that will lead us to disaster,” he said.

Netanyahu responded angrily, charging Shahak with mounting a verbal assault that bordered on incitement--loaded words in a nation that lost a prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, to an assassin in 1995 after a virulent right-wing campaign against his peace policies.

In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu also said he regretted that his challenger had chosen to open his campaign with a “blatant personal attack, instead of presenting his political positions--if he has any.”

Shahak also came under withering assaults from other candidates from right and left, who dismiss him as a “junior politician,” “a counselor in a youth movement” and a “pale imitation” of others on the Israeli political scene.

However, many Israelis see Shahak as someone they can trust, and polls have consistently shown him running a strong race for the May 17 election.

After 36 years of military service in which he was prohibited from expressing political opinions in public, Shahak used fairly broad brush strokes Wednesday to outline his ideas, particularly on sensitive or controversial issues. Many of his positions appeared close to those of the opposition Labor Party, and its leader, Ehud Barak.

Nonetheless, he made clear that he opposes a unilateral withdrawal from the land Israel occupies in south Lebanon to protect northern Israeli towns from attack by Islamic militants. The occupation is unpopular in Israel because of mounting casualties. Shahak believes that the solution to Israel’s “Lebanon problem” lies in negotiations with Syria, which is the dominant hand in Lebanon, and assumes that Damascus will never reach a permanent peace with Israel without a territorial compromise on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

On the Palestinian issue, Shahak said he supports the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords, including the recent U.S.-brokered Wye River agreement to transfer more West Bank land to the Palestinians. He did not rule out the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, but said Palestinian leaders should refrain from unilateral declarations of independence before the two sides hold permanent status negotiations.

He joins a crowded field of challengers to Netanyahu, whose government agreed Dec. 21 to hold elections 18 months ahead of schedule. Netanyahu had been under pressure from right and left since signing the Wye accord in late October to cede more land to the Palestinians.

The peace process is now frozen, probably for the duration of the campaign. Israel has accused the Palestinians of failing to carry out their commitments under the latest accord, sparking growing frustration from Palestinians who see few concrete achievements from the 5-year-old peace process.

During times of Israeli-Palestinian tension, one of the West Bank’s most frequent flash points is Hebron, a city divided into areas of Israeli and Palestinian control. And on Wednesday, as earlier this week, violence flared there again.

Bader Kawasmeh, a 26-year-old Palestinian, was fatally wounded by Israeli soldiers after he ran toward a checkpoint brandishing what turned out to be a toy pistol. He was shot and died several hours later in a Jerusalem hospital.

Palestinians in Hebron were quoted by Reuters as saying he appeared to be mentally impaired.