Year 2002 in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories, and Early General Election in Israel, January 28, 2003

Complicated situation in the field of Israeli-Palestinian conflict gave no occasion for improvement of the situation. The terror attacks of the members of Palestinian militant group (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) as well as very hard Israeli military revenges kept on all the year round. The peace process is out of the question at the moment. It has been almost buried and relations between the State of Israel and the Palestinian autonomy authorities are nearly frozen now. The economic situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is serious, too. Tension in this region deepens the probability of war against Iraq. Generally speaking, last year's political development in Israel led to the advanced general election. The Palestinian autonomy also planned to organise general election in its territory, but they didn't take place. Israeli Labour party left National Unity Government, led by Ariel Sharon, last autumn. The prime minister called an advanced election then. The Labour party elected its new leader - Amram Mitzna. He pledged to withdraw from the Gaza Strip within one year, to hold negotiations with the Palestinians immediately and without any preconditions, and to complete the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, if the negotiations fail. On the other hand the Likud party, led by Sharon, offer to its voters nothing in particular. Although the Likud won a great victory in the advanced general election and gained 37 seats in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), compared with the Labour party, which received 19 seats only. It was also the greatest defeat of the Labour party in history of the State of Israel. These results suggest that Israeli society turned more towards the right-nationalist tendencies. This is neither a good message for the "rebirth" of the peace process nor for reaching the compromise in the Middle East.