RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated yesterday that he will hold consultations with Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu before making any decision on a deal with Hamas to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“We need to consider the new post-election reality,” Olmert said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “From now on, this government will act as the new political reality requires. That’s the natural thing the elections necessitate.”
Olmert expressed hope that a new government would be formed as soon as possible “in light of the challenges Israel is facing.” Despite garnering fewer votes than the ruling Kadima party, the right-wing camp’s majority in the upcoming Knesset gives the Likud leader the best chance to form the next governing coalition.
“Netanyahu is updated every so often on developments and we will want to consult with him before making a decision on a matter that will be critical for the next government,” a government source said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrote in a private note captured by cameras yesterday that her party would not join any coalition government by Netanyahu.
The note, which Livni handed to Olmert at the Cabinet meeting, set the battle lines in what could be weeks of political bargaining after Israel’s inconclusive election last Tuesday.
Shortly after polls closed, both Livni and Netanyahu laid claim to the premiership, deepening uncertainty over the course Israel will follow after last month’s Gaza war and in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Kadima won 28 seats in the 120-member Parliament to Likud’s 27, but a strong rightist bloc that emerged in the vote appeared to give Netanyahu the edge in putting together a governing majority. “I have no intention of being in a unity government headed by Bibi — and don’t hint that,” Livni, using Netanyahu’s nickname, said in the note chiding Olmert, who was reported to have urged her to join a broad Likud-led coalition.
Television cameras are allowed to film the start of Israeli Cabinet meetings, and they caught Livni writing the note. Its text could be read clearly when the paper was shown on TV news programs.
Later, in broadcast remarks to Kadima legislators, Livni said the party deserved to lead Israel, but left open the possibility it would go into opposition.
On Saturday, the prime minister’s office issued a statement pouring cold water on reports that a truce deal with Hamas was on the cards, and making it clear for the first time that Israel will not accept a truce that does not include the return of Shalit. “It should be emphasized that what is on top of Israel’s priorities are the security of the residents of the south and the release of Gilad Shalit,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Israeli investigations into last month’s war on Gaza indicate the army could face significant difficulties justifying the scale of destruction of civilian homes, an Israeli military source involved in the investigation said.
The daily Haaretz quoted the source as saying that “it’s clear to us that in a small portion of the combat sectors immeasurable damage was caused, and that is very difficult to justify from a legal perspective, particularly if such justifications are called for in legal proceedings with international organizations.”
During the war, Israeli forces destroyed hundreds of houses in different sectors, and Palestinian sources estimate several thousands of houses suffered damage. Some of the homes were struck as a result of aerial Israeli strikes, others during tank shelling in densely built urban areas.
Still others were damaged by bulldozers or in controlled explosions under the orders of battalion and brigade commanders. However, those making the decisions were often not the brigade commanders themselves, but support staff such as operational commanders.
The report quoted senior commanders attached to units operating in Gaza last month as saying that the Israeli military bulldozers were in high demand during the war, and brigade commanders often pushed for their units to be granted such vehicles.
Last week Israel’s Channel 2 television reported that according to estimates produced by the Israeli security establishment, about one-third of more than 1,350 people killed during the fighting were “uninvolved civilians,” a figure which Palestinian sources put much higher.
— With input from agencies
