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Arabs think solution is now out of their reach

"I believe the results of the Israeli polls indicate a slight shift in Israel's public opinion towards moderation."

Diab Makhadmeh, professor of political science at the University of Jordan

The outcome of Tuesday's Israeli general elections indicates a "slight shift" in Jewish public opinion that could lead to "transitional solutions."

But a final settlement between Israelis and Palestinians seems ruled out in the near future, prominent Jordanian academics and experts on Israeli affairs said on Wednesday.

However, they said that they considered an offer for negotiations with Palestinians made on Tuesday night by Ehud Olmert -- leader of the Kadima Party that won the largest number of seats -- as "tantamount to going back on his blueprint" of a unilateral solution in the West Bank.

"I believe the results of the Israeli polls indicate a slight shift in Israel's public opinion towards moderation, but it did not go so far as to bring about a breakthrough in the stalled peace process," said Diab Makhadmeh, professor of Political Science at the University of Jordan.

"Therefore, I am inclined to rule out a final settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians in the foreseeable future, and I believe we cannot expect more than a crisis administration in the coming stage," he said.

Elaborating on this point, Makhadmeh said that there was no chance for "reconciling" the Israeli conditions for resumed negotiations and those put forward by the Palestinian Hamas movement that won a majority in the January elections.

Makhadmeh and Jordan's top expert on Israeli affairs, Ghassan al-Saadi, considered Olmert's post-election call on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for resuming peace talks as "a change imposed by the less-than-expected seats" he got in the polling.

Olmert said in a speech after the announcement of election results that Israel was ready to live alongside the Palestinians in peace after decades of conflict.

During the election campaign, the Kadima leader vowed to set Israel's frontier by 2010, removing isolated West Bank settlements while expanding bigger blocs in the territory.

"Olmert's offer is tantamount to going back on the unilateral solution plan. This change has been dictated by Kadima's failure to clinch the expected number of seats," al-Saadi said.

"The centrist Kadima party has now to forge a coalition with the Labor Party that rejects the unilateral demarcation of frontiers in the West Bank and demands a negotiated settlement," he added.

With votes counted from 99.5 percent of polling stations, official results gave Kadima 28 seats in the 120-member parliament and the center-left Labor 20 seats. Pre-election opinion polls gave Kadima 34 seats.

"I believe there is no chance at this juncture for a final solution to the Palestinian question, but we can see transitional solutions that may be agreed on by the two sides," al-Saadi said.

"Such solutions may take the form of Israeli partial withdrawals from the areas A and B which have been previously controlled by the Palestinian Authority, stopping violence and improving the living conditions of Palestinians," he added.

He said that the absence of the ailing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from the scene was mainly to blame for the low number of seats won by Kadima.

"I think internal divisions were behind the bad showing of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party," which won only 11 seats, al-Saadi said.
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