Abbas: Israel reduced security cooperation

JERUSALEM: The Palestinian president says Israel has reduced its security cooperation with Palestinians in the West Bank to protest their successful bid for upgraded status at the United Nations.
Mahmoud Abbas says Israeli soldiers have started entering West Bank cities without Palestinian coordination. He spoke in a meeting with a dovish Israeli lawmaker and Israel’s daily Haaretz.
An Abbas aide, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, said Israel’s army detained 200 Palestinian officers in recent months, mostly for short interrogations.
Israeli defense officials responded yesterday that soldiers enter Palestinian cities only when they think Palestinians are not providing enough support.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s Likud party is set to win a parliamentary election on Jan. 22 although the popularity of a far-right party opposed to Palestinian statehood is growing, polls showed on Friday.
Two out of three surveys showed the right-wing Likud losing voters to political newcomer Naftali Bennett’s religious party Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) and to a fractured center-left bloc.
All still predicted a strong right-wing coalition emerging in the 120-seat parliament, which would assure Netanyahu another term.
The daily Yedioth Ahronoth published a poll with Likud winning 33 seats, four less than a month ago. A poll in the Jerusalem Post showed Likud fell to 34, down from 39 just two weeks ago. A survey by Maariv said Likud held ground at 37.
Without a majority in Parliament, Likud would have to join forces with other parties to form a government. Netanyahu could choose Bennett and ultra-Orthodox religious parties or team up with members of the center-left bloc.
The left-leaning Labor party remained in second place in all the polls, winning 17 or 18 seats.
Bennett’s party platform rejects a two-state solution with the Palestinians and is staunchly in favor of settlement building in the occupied West Bank — an issue which has stalled peace talks.
All the polls show him on an upward trend, winning between 12 and 14 seats.