'Dialogue of the Deaf' -- Hamas, Israel Won't Talk; Arab-Israelis Aren't Heard

When Palestinian voters took to the polls in January and voted for Hamas, stunning the international community, the results were described as an "earthquake." On Tuesday, March 28, in the lowest election turnout in the country's history, Israeli voters did not cause an earthquake. But the outcome was still dramatic.

Israelis apparently moved to center politically, by giving the Kadima party the majority of seats in the Israeli Knesset, rejecting Benjamin Netanyahu and dealing a major blow to the conservative Likud party. But they also surprised many analysts and pollsters by voting in large numbers for Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Beiteinu party, which calls for an Arab-free Israel. The Beiteinu party wants to place Arab towns and villages outside state borders and strip Israel's Arab residents of their citizenship.

The vision of new centrist government leader Ehud Olmert is more moderate, but only slightly. Olmert has pledged to establish permanent borders for Israel by 2010, with or without the Palestinians' approval. Several years ago, when he was mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert outlined his vision of an Israeli state with "as many Jews and as few Palestinians as possible." During his victory speech to Kadima supporters, he reiterated this vision by declaring, "In the coming period we will move to settle the final borders of the state of Israel, a Jewish state with a Jewish majority."

More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=21ad27f70a576165d12e7e6e6552d984