* Opinion polls show Netanyahu on course to win ballot
* Could win renewed mandate ahead of U.S. presidential vote
(Adds Netanyahu quote on Iran, settlers force procedural
delays)
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
TEL AVIV, May 6 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu on Sunday said he supported holding an early general
election in four months’ time, a ballot polls say could
strengthen his hand as Israel confronts Iran’s nuclear
ambitions.
The next national vote was not due until October 2013, but
new legislation that might force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in
the military and an upcoming budget debate have threatened to
unravel a governing coalition of religious and nationalist
parties once seen as one of the most stable in Israel’s history.
“It is preferable to have a short election campaign of four
months that will swiftly return stability to the political
ranks,” Netanyahu said in a speech to a packed convention of his
rightist Likud party.
He said he wanted to avoid pressure from coalition partners
who were beginning to destabilise the government. He did not
specify a date, but a party official earlier said Sept. 4 was
the probable date for the ballot.
Likud has submitted a bill to dissolve Israel’s parliament
so that an early election may be held.
Parliament had been expected to start debating the measure
on Monday, but that plan seemed uncertain after a senior
coalition partner urged a procedural postponement.
“With the start of the government’s fourth year we have seen
many signs that the stability has begun to waver and political
instability always brings extortion (and) populism which harm
security, the economy and society. I will not allow a campaign
of a year and a half that will harm the country,” Netanyahu
said.
A Netanyahu victory two months before the U.S. election
would give him leverage over Barack Obama on the Iranian and
Palestinian issues while the U.S. president is still engaged in
his own campaign and wary of alienating pro-Israeli voters.
Netanyahu and Obama have had a thorny relationship and the
right-wing Israeli leader has come under pressure from
Washington not to take unilateral military action against
Iranian nuclear facilities suspected of being part of a project
to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear programme is purely civilian. Israel
is believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power.
Opinion polls show Likud will easily come out on top of the
national ballot, giving Netanyahu a renewed mandate to tackle
what he has described as the most important challenge facing his
country – the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.
On the subject of Iran, Netanyahu told his party he would
not “ease the pressure until the threat is truly removed.”
IMPACT ON IRAN POLICY
Israeli leaders have insisted the election campaign would
have no impact on their decision-making on Iran. Netanyahu and
his government would remain in office until a new administration
is sworn in following the election.
Netanyahu has been urged by Washington and other world
powers to allow beefed-up international sanctions on Iran to
bite. He has voiced pessimism about the outcome of international
nuclear talks with Iran due to resume in Baghdad on May 23.
While opinion polls have shown strong support for
Netanyahu’s leadership, they have also indicated a wide majority
of Israelis either oppose an Israeli strike on Iran or would
favour an attack only if it were carried out with U.S.
agreement.
Netanyahu was cheered by hundreds at the Likud session held
at a Tel Aviv convention hall but seemed to lose face in a
procedural battle, when booing pro-settler activists managed to
postpone a vote to elect him as head of a body to set party
election rules.
The meeting broke up after a disorderly three hours without
holding the vote that would have launched a process of choosing
a slate of Likud candidates for the general election.
“Iran is not so interesting just now,” said Reuven Malter,
from the Elon Moreh settlement in the West Bank. He said he was
worried that Netanyahu would succumb to Western pressure to
break a deadlock with Palestinians and strike a peace deal at
settlers’ expense if he wins a second term.
“I think the prime minister is too moderate,” said Yossi
Bitan, another settler delegate, citing recent efforts to remove
unauthorised outposts built by the settlers on land that
Palestinians seek for a state.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis; editing
by Anna Willard)
