Netanyahu Gains in Bid to Challenge Barak

As deadly fighting raged in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Israeli lawmakers moved closer to making it possible for Benjamin Netanyahu to run against Prime Minister Ehud Barak in elections expected in early February.

Although political maneuvering continues in the Knesset, or parliament, and Israelis still don’t know exactly what kind of elections will be held or when--or who will be running in them--the campaign is in full swing.

Barak, whom polls show trailing Netanyahu badly, is increasing military pressure on the Palestinians even as he works to reach a final peace settlement with them that analysts say is his best hope of winning reelection. Officials close to him said Wednesday that they are engaged in a “direct dialogue” with Palestinian officials to restart negotiations.

Israel Television reported Wednesday night that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected in Israel soon to determine whether President Clinton should travel here to help close a deal in the waning days of his presidency. American diplomats in the region said that an Albright visit is possible but that Clinton has no plans yet to come.

Netanyahu, the former prime minister who lost his job to Barak 19 months ago, has declared his candidacy although he has yet to be chosen head of the Likud Party he abandoned after his election defeat, and current law would bar him from running.

Two bills that will determine which type of election takes place are expected to be decided in the Knesset next week. The first, dubbed the “Bibi bill,” would change the law to let anyone run for prime minister in the sort of special election Barak triggered by resigning last week. Under current law, only Knesset members can run in such elections. Netanyahu resigned his Knesset seat when he lost to Barak.

Even Barak voted for the “Bibi bill” on Wednesday, which passed with 67 votes in the 120-seat Knesset. It must pass two more readings, however, before it can become law. If the bill does not pass, the Knesset could still make it possible for Netanyahu to run by dissolving itself and going to general elections in February. Anyone can run for prime minister in general elections.

Jewish settlers expressed outrage Wednesday at the political machinations consuming the government and parliament while the shooting war rages on in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“Yesterday, two women were shot here and it was reported toward the end of the newscast,” said Yafa Hazut, a resident of the Neve Dekalim settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, speaking on Israel Television. “We’re not in the headlines anymore. It’s not interesting anymore. That’s a very difficult feeling.”

Ephraim Kashandi, principal of a school in Neve Dekalim where a computer lab was hit by bullets fired by Palestinians on Tuesday, said the settlers are paying scant attention to the political battles in Jerusalem--they’re too busy trying to stay alive.

“The politicians should understand that it’s war here,” Kashandi said.

The Palestinians have suffered the majority of the casualties since the current violence erupted in late September, claiming more than 310 lives. Thirteen Israeli Arabs and 38 soldiers and other Israelis have died in the fighting.

Four Palestinian police officers were shot dead and at least 28 other Palestinians were wounded in a fierce gun battle with Israeli troops that erupted near Neve Dekalim early Wednesday morning and continued for seven hours. Israeli army spokesman Maj. Yarden Vatikay said the fighting began when Israeli troops bulldozed an earthen ramp he said the Palestinians had used as a shelter from which to fire on settlements near the refugee camp in Khan Yunis.

Vatikay said the ramp was “on the border” between territory controlled by Israel and territory controlled by the Palestinians. But Palestinians said they had built the ramp on their territory to protect the camp from shooting from the Israeli side and that they shot at the troops because they thought the soldiers were invading the camp. Vatikay confirmed Palestinian reports that the army fired machine guns and tank shells.

Palestinians reported that the Israelis destroyed three homes in the camp with bulldozers and that many other homes were damaged by shells and machine-gun fire.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, a militant in the Hamas Islamic movement was shot dead in what Palestinians called the latest in a series of what they say are Israeli assassinations of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah militants.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said the army will hunt down those shooting at its soldiers and kill them. Vatikay would neither confirm nor deny that the army shot Abbas Awawi, 28, in Hebron. But in recent weeks, “the pattern of Palestinian activity has changed dramatically. They have switched to terror attacks, and settlers are the main targets,” he said.

In response, Vatikay said, the army has “gone to quieter, more precise, active and effective activities.”

“Those people should know that they are targeted,” he said.

But even as the shooting continues, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami told Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinians should seize the opportunity to conclude a peace deal before President-elect George W. Bush takes office.

“Both the Palestinians and we have very great doubts the next president, apparently George Bush, will view the Palestinian subject as the center of his foreign policy in the Middle East, for various reasons,” Ben-Ami said. In contrast, he said, President Clinton “has an agenda which is greatly linked to the Palestinian subject.”

In a background briefing with members of the foreign press corps, a senior Israeli official pointed out that as a caretaker prime minister, Barak can still negotiate an agreement. The prime minister would then consider the elections a referendum on the deal.

“I do believe the peace process will be the focus for these elections,” said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the diplomatic and political situation.