Israel Needs an Election

With the resignation of moderate Foreign Minister David Levy, the political center of gravity in Israel’s government has shifted even farther to the right and the dim outlook for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians has faded still further.

In two weeks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is supposed to meet with President Clinton and present--so Washington hopes--a plan for a “credible and significant� further withdrawal of the Israeli presence in the West Bank. U.S. officials have said they would like to see a minimum of 10% of Israeli-held land in the territory turned over to the Palestinian Authority. But powerful segments of Netanyahu’s fractious coalition implacably oppose any withdrawal and have threatened to bring down the government over the issue. That might be the best thing that can happen now.

Netanyahu has always insisted he would achieve a “secure� peace, an emphasis meant to distinguish his approach from the one he ascribes to the previous Labor government. He has never been specific about how he would assure security, though keeping control over most of the West Bank is obviously central to his plans. Meanwhile, through expanded settlement activity and other provocative actions he has made sure there could be no productive negotiations. He has of course been greatly aided by the indecisiveness and weakness of Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority, who similarly seems unwilling to rein in the extremists in his own camp.

On Monday, Netanyahu shrugged off Levy’s resignation and the shrunken voting majority in the Knesset it has produced. He is not worried about an early election or its outcome, he said, because people know that if Labor won it would “immediately� withdraw the Israeli presence to the 1967 boundary lines, once more leaving Israel territorially vulnerable. This is familiar fear-mongering nonsense, but it also sounds very much like warmup rhetoric for an electoral campaign that Netanyahu knows will probably come soon.

As we have suggested, that outcome could be all to the good. A year and a half in power has given Netanyahu full opportunity to display his approach to peace, certainly time enough for voters to see the blind alley down which his government is leading Israel. The polls continue to show that most Israelis remain more committed than their government to seeking a realistic peace. An early election is the best hope for trying to revive that comatose process.