US and Israel on collision course

The billboards come down after Likud's election victory.Picture / AP

US reaffirms belief in deal with Palestinians after Netanyahu win

Atriumphant Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be on a new collision course with Barack Obama after the US President bluntly restated his belief in a Palestinian state and criticised the Israeli leader's election campaign tactics.

In a pointed intervention, Obama voiced concern about the campaign rhetoric towards Israel's Arab population, a spokesman said, calling it "divisive".

The criticism appeared to refer to comments Netanyahu made in a video posted on Facebook on election day when he attempted to mobilise supporters by warning that Arabs were "voting in droves".

The White House intervention rudely interrupted the Israeli Prime Minister's celebrations of an unexpected re-election win and followed Netanyahu's eve-of-poll abandonment of a commitment to recognise Palestinian statehood as part of a peace agreement.

Netanyahu - desperately trying to woo right-wing voters - created fresh doubts about the future of the Middle East peace process when he said that a Palestinian state would not be created if he were re-elected.

Netanyahu's Likud Party won a resounding victory against a strongly tipped centre-left opposition grouping, the Zionist Union, largely by appealing to supporters of right-wing parties such as Jewish Home, which opposes a Palestinian state.

The Israeli leader has previously committed himself to accepting a demilitarised Palestinian state as part of a comprehensive peace deal. But he said that commitment was no longer relevant in a region threatened by Islamist radicals.

In a thinly veiled rebuke of Netanyahu's volte face, a White House spokesman said Obama still believed that a two-state solution was the best means of bringing stability to the Middle East.

The Obama Administration's comments followed statements from the EU, the UN and the Palestinians demanding a renewed commitment to the stalled peace process.

Palestinian officials responded to Netanyahu's re-election by threatening to intensify diplomatic moves aimed at pressuring Israel, including pursuing it for possible war crimes in the International Criminal Court, which the Palestinian Authority is due to join on April 1.

The Palestinians' senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, told the Voice of Palestine radio station the Palestinian Authority would end its security forces' co-operation with those of Israel.

"Now, more than ever, the international community must act. It must rally behind Palestinian efforts to internationalise our struggle for dignity and freedom through the International Criminal Court, and other peaceful means."Telegraph Group Ltd, Independent

Election results

Likud:

29

Zionist Union:

24

(Arab) Joint List:

14

Yesh Atid:

11

Kulanu:

10

Jewish Home:

8

Shas:

7

United Torah Judaism:

7

Yisrael Beiteinu:

6

Meretz:

4