WITH THE polls showing a close race ahead of Israel’s elections tomorrow, front runner Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights yesterday and warned that if his main rival, Tzipi Livni, is elected prime minister, she will return the strategic plateau to Syria.
Mr Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud, visited the area Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day Arab-Israeli war with leading party candidates.
“Jerusalem will not be divided again and Gamla will not fall again. The Golan will stay in our hands only if the Likud is victorious. If Kadima wins, we will leave the Golan,” Mr Netanyahu said.
The outgoing government headed by Kadima, the party now led by foreign minister Tzipi Livni, held indirect negotiations with Syria, via Turkish mediators, on a land-for-peace deal based on Israel returning the Golan to Syria.
The talks failed to lead to a breakthrough, and contacts are frozen.
Mr Netanyahu planted a tree on the Golan to mark the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat (the New Year for Trees), with his son Avner, and vowed that Avner would bring his own children to the site in the future.
The weekend polls showed that Kadima had narrowed the Likud lead to between one and three seats in the 120-seat Knesset parliament. Although most parties are likely to recommend to President Shimon Peres, after the poll, that Mr Netanyahu form the next government, the party with the most seats has always headed Israeli governments in the past.
Some Likud officials expressed concern that what looked like a certain victory throughout the campaign may be slipping away.
Leading Likud politicians warned that there was no guarantee that Avigdor Lieberman – the somewhat maverick leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, in third place – would recommend Mr Netanyahu over Ms Livni for prime minister.
Meanwhile, two rockets fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel yesterday. One landed in a kibbutz and the other hit the city of Ashkelon. Cars and buildings were damaged but no one was hurt.
Egyptian officials indicated that separate contacts with Hamas representatives and Israel may result in a new ceasefire agreement in the coming days.
The truce will be for a year and a half, with an option for an additional 18 months. Moreover, it will include the opening of the border crossings to Gaza, with both Palestinian Authority and international monitors stationed at the Palestinian side.
Progress was also reported in separate negotiations on a prisoner swap, under which Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian detainees in return for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by militants on the Israel-Gaza border more than two and a half years ago.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said Shalit would not be home before the election, but expressed the hope that the deal would be finalised before the government left office in a few weeks.