Israeli parliament makes initial move toward early elections

In this story: Foreign minister predicts spring elections U.S. offers muted reaction to Barak election announcement RELATED STORIES, SITES

CNN Correspondent Jerrold Kessel, CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and White House Correspondent Major Garrett contributed to this report

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli parliament began moves Tuesday to dissolve itself by giving initial approval for legislation calling for an early election.

The 120-member Knesset overwhelmingly approved the bill at its first reading. It must also be approved at second and third readings to become law, a procedure expected to take several weeks.

The bill was proposed by the right-wing opposition as part of moves to oust Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who has been under fire over his stance at peace talks with the Palestinians and over his failure to quell a Palestinian uprising.

VIDEO Barak speaks to the Knesset regarding new elections (Part 1 - November 28) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) (Part 2 - November 28) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     AUDIO Listen to a translation of Barak saying he is willing to go to early elections 153K/14 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Listen to Sharon saying he supports a peace between Israel and the Palestinians and plans to go to the primaries during Israel's upcoming elections 455K/42 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Sharon, part 2 303K/27 sec. AIFF or WAV sound    GALLERY Tears, tension and diplomacy (November 27)     MESSAGE BOARD Mideast peace

Barak told parliament on Tuesday he would welcome early national elections.

"You want elections -- I'm prepared for elections," Barak told the Knesset. "I'm not afraid of elections ... I'm proud of what I've done and what my government has done."

Foreign minister predicts spring elections

Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, during a subsequent interview with CNN, predicted elections would be held next spring, "maybe April or May." Holding out the possibility that Israelis and Palestinians could reach a peace agreement before then, Ben-Ami said both sides had recently undertaken "a series of contacts" to reduce the level of violence.

"We have detected, in recent days, a more serious attempt by the Palestinian leaderships to bring an end to this stage of violence, and I think that should be encouraged," he said. He added that Israel was about to implement "a series of confidence building measures." These included withdrawing some Israeli forces and opening bridges, he said.

Likud opposition party leader Ariel Sharon indicated, during an interview with CNN, that he could be the candidate running against Barak in elections, "assuming that Barak would be the labor party candidate."

Asked about the peace process, Sharon said he would depart from Barak's approach and seek "a better peace, a realistic peace, a different way."

"I personally don't believe we can reach, at the present time, a permanent agreement," said Sharon, referring to unresolved issues between the Israelis and Palestinians.

He said he felt it would be a "mistake (for Barak) to try and make a peace at any cost, just to save himself."

Asked what the election would be fought over, Ben-Ami said: "Obviously, the peace policy is a major component of our agenda." He said Barak's government also could take credit for "a turn around in the Israeli economy, after three or four years of recession" under the previous government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Barak was elected to a four-year term in May 1999. His minority government has been steadily losing support as violence has persisted in Gaza and the West Bank, and it has been in peril since parliament returned from recess a month ago.

U.S. offers muted reaction to Barak election announcement

The White House reacted cautiously to Barak's announcement that he would call for early elections rather than form a national unity government, an option which Barak had previously explored in talks with Sharon.

"We knew this was one of the options available and it was not be hard to see this coming," said a senior administration official directly involved in peace efforts with the Israelis and Palestinians.

Barak before addressing the Knesset in Jerusalem on Tuesday

Other officials said the White House has done very little game-planning in advance of Barak's move because they had no idea how it would affect Barak's approach to coping with Palestinian violence or trying to rebuild the peace process. A bigger wild card, they say, will be Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's reaction.

"It remains their peace process," said one senior official. "It's up the prime minister and the Palestinians to tell us what to do in the time we have left. Both sides have to live up to the obligations of the Sharm El-Shiekh agreement and reduce the violence."

The White House will have no official reaction to Barak's move, said Press Secretary Jake Siewert. One official described Barak's move as a matter of "internal Israeli politics."

White House and State Department officials said violent clashes must subside before any semblance of a peace process can be constructed.

"The focus has to be ending the violence no matter what political process is taking place ...the focus has to be finding a path back to peace," said a senior State Department official.

"Our belief is that Israel is committed to the peace process," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

Earlier Tuesday, another senior U.S. official intimately involved in Mideast peace talks sounded a cautious, mildly optimistic note that both sides "may have reached a point where they see it's in their interests to pull back." The official cited the fact that after almost two months of non-stop bloodshed, no one appeared to have died Monday in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

"It was a little quieter," the official said. "But there have been numerous false starts before ...We need to see if that represents a new code of behavior."

Numerous U.S. officials have expressed concern that violence in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank -- as well as throughout the Middle East -- could escalate during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month which began Monday.

Officials said that according to the Muslim faith, if someone is killed during Ramadan it is believed that person will go directly to heaven.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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