Israeli Officials: Elections Will Stand11/02 06:27

   

   TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's 
efforts to question last week's elections weakened Sunday as officials said the 
vote would not be undermined by the allegations and a court ordered suspects in 
one case released.

   In an image that indicated officials were on the same page, the head of 
Israel's elections committee was shown sitting between Israel's attorney 
general and the head of the Shin Bet intelligence service for a statement 
making clear that even if claims of foreign interference raised last week are 
substantiated, the vote would stand.

   Netanyahu's Likud party has said, without giving evidence, that Arab-led 
parties "stole" the elections in which Netanyahu's bloc lost its majority of 
seats in parliament. By casting doubt on the vote, Netanyahu appears to be 
trying to block any potential alliance in the opposition with the Arab parties 
that could force him from office.

   Likud has cited a handful of cases, including the arrests of three political 
activists before polls opened on Oct. 27 with envelopes of cash, allegedly to 
bribe voters. Two days later, police arrested four more suspects. Police said 
the suspects were connected to the Islamist party Ra'am, which denied that it 
was involved.

   A judge on Sunday questioned or rejected police requests for further 
restrictions on the three suspects. Police later said one was released subject 
to unspecified "conditions" and another was ordered to remain on house arrest 
for eight days. The detention of the third suspect was extended for two days.

   Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra'am party, which won eight seats in the 
Knesset, denounced the arrests as undemocratic and "an attempt to influence the 
election results."

   Netanyahu suggests joining with Arab parties is treason 

   Netanyahu saw his parliamentary bloc of allies drop to 53 seats in the 
120-member Knesset, down from a peak of 68 in the outgoing parliament.

   A bloc of parties led by his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, won 48 seats, while 
Arab-led parties, including Ra'am, won the remaining 19 seats. Together, those 
two blocs opposing Netanyahu have enough seats to form a new government, though 
it remains unclear whether they will agree to do so.

   The results are due to be officially certified this week, and President 
Isaac Herzog on Wednesday will begin meeting with each of the parties elected 
to parliament after that to see who they prefer to be the next prime minister.

   Following those consultations, he will choose the candidate -- most likely 
Netanyahu or Eisenkot -- who he believes has the best chance of forming a 
coalition government.

   That would set the stage for weeks of negotiations. If they are 
unsuccessful, Herzog could ask another candidate to try. Otherwise, the country 
would be plunged into a new election early next year.

   Netanyahu has suggested that it would be treasonous for Eisenkot to join 
with Arab parties. Some Israelis agree. A few dozen people protested outside 
Eisenkot's home on Sunday night.

   "We have a tiny country, a very tiny Jewish country. We want to keep it as a 
Jewish country," said one protester, Shoshana Idasis. Other, larger rallies in 
recent days have called for a Jewish-Arab coalition.

   Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of trying to delegitimize the vote 

   Likud also has alleged foreign interference in the vote. The Shin Bet 
security service, at the request of Israel's election commission, has opened an 
investigation.

   But the head of the elections committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam 
Sohlberg, said that "our position is that even if the suspicions are 
substantiated, this would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process 
or the election results as a whole."

   Likud quickly issued a statement asking how the committee chief can 
acknowledge there are serious allegations while saying there will be no effect 
on the final outcome.

   Eisenkot on Sunday accused Netanyahu of launching an "orchestrated and 
organized campaign to delegitimize the election results" by insinuating that 
Qatar had supported opposition parties to unseat Netanyahu. Eisenkot said that 
Shin Bet briefed him on the investigation into foreign interference.

   Qatar has denied funding any activities meant to influence the election's 
outcome. Many Israelis see the Gulf Arab country as a patron of Hamas, and 
allegations of its influence have roiled Israeli politics in other cases, 
including one in which close aides of Netanyahu allegedly accepted money from 
Qatar while working for the prime minister's office.

   Netanyahu's opponents have accused him of using scare tactics and trying to 
create a narrative to further discriminate against Arab-led parties and 
Israel's Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population.

   Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List of Arab parties, which won 11 
seats, noted last week that more than half the content published by Likud and 
Netanyahu on election day was directed against Arab voters as a tactic to 
encourage right-wing Israelis to vote.

   "In moments of crisis, he reverts to his familiar tactic: racist incitement 
and the delegitimization of the Arab public," he said.