ISRAELI ELECTION

By Ray Fleming ARIEL Sharon's successor, Ehud Olmert, has won the Israeli election but, with only 28 votes in a parliament of 120 seats, he still has a lot of work to do before his new party Kadima can form a stable government. His main ally is likely to be the Labour party with 20 seats but four or five other small parties, possibly even including the new single-issue Pensioners party, will have to be brought into a coalition to give Mr Olmert an overall majority. Although Kadima, Mr Sharon's creation, had expected to win more than 28 seats, its prospects may have been affected by the disappointingly low turnout at the polls. It is surprising to see apathy when the stakes for Israel's future are so high. From the perspective of Middle East peace, the virtual obliteration of the right-wing Likud party led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is a positive outcome of the election. So, in a broad sense, is the voters' implicit endorsement of Mr Olmert's intention of withdrawing from the most exposed settlements in the West Bank. However, it would be a mistake to think that such withdrawals would alone meet Palestinian objectives in any negotiated settlement; there are many other issues to be addressed including that of land illegally enclosed by Israel within its security wall. If Israel wants international recognition for its borders it will have to do more than withdraw from land where it should not have been in the first place.