Israel Prepares To Go 'Forward'

Israeli police tightened security Monday on the eve of national elections as opinion polls showed the centrist Kadima party's lead faltering.

Polls show Kadima — which means "forward" in Hebrew — winning around 35 seats in the Knesset, at least 15 more than any other party, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger (audio), but it may have a hard time forming a center-left coalition that will back Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan for unilateral pullouts from parts of the West Bank. Right-wing parties may win enough votes to block the plan

Olmert has said he would not include parties in his coalition opposed to his plan to withdraw from parts of the West Bank and draw Israel's final borders by 2010.

Meanwhile, the Islamic militant group Hamas has presented its cabinet list and government agenda to the Palestinian parliament for a vote of confidence, and said it won't cave in to international economic pressures to soften its hardline agenda.

The U.S. and European Union have threatened to cut nearly a billion dollars in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority, if Hamas does not renounce violence and recognize Israel. Hamas has refused.

Prime minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh said Palestinians have the right to resist the Israeli occupation.

Israeli candidates spent their last day Monday campaigning, targeting swing voters who pollsters say make up about 10 percent of the electorate.

Labor leader Amir Peretz handed out red carnations in Tel Aviv, while Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu said prayers at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. Kadima's No. 2, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, was to tour Jerusalem's main outdoor market later in the day.

More than 23,000 Israeli police and soldiers have been deployed to secure the elections, reports Berger (audio). Israeli authorities say Palestinian terrorists are planning attacks to mar the elections.

"The Israeli police will be out there over the next few days, obviously to maintain security, to give the public obviously to feel confident," said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.

The West Bank and Gaza have been sealed off, and police have stepped up their presence at city entrances, bus stops, malls and crowded public places.

Police also closed a hotly disputed holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem to visitors. The Al Aqsa Mosque compound, built on the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples, is a magnet for extremists. Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Muslim worshippers would be allowed into the site, which is administered by Muslim authorities.

In Gaza City, Haniyeh told the Palestinian parliament he is ready to hold talks with international mediators on solving the Mideast conflict. He did not mention Israel by name, but his willingness to talk to the so-called Quartet — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — could be a first sign of flexibility.

Hamas has rejected demands by the Quartet that it recognize Israel, renounce violence and recognize existing peace agreements, and Haniyeh did not explain how he would get around those disagreements.

"The government is ready for dialogue with the Quartet, and looking for every possible way to end the conflict and the occupation," he said.

Parliament was to approve the new Hamas government Tuesday or Wednesday.

In the West Bank, an Israeli military court turned down a request for bail by militant leader Ahmed Saadat, who was snatched by army troops earlier this month from a Palestinian prison after a 10-hour siege. Saadat ordered the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001.

The March 14 raid on the Jericho prison boosted Olmert's image as a tough-minded leader. But it angered Palestinians and embarrassed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Monday's polls, the last before the vote, predicted Labor would be the second-largest party in Israel's parliament. Likud would come in third, racking up between 13-15 seats, a serious blow to a party that dominated Israeli politics for most of the past three decades.

A Dahaf Institute poll published in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot showed Kadima lost two seats, dropping to 34; Labor remained steady at 21; and Likud dropped one to 13. The survey of 1,115 eligible voters had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

A Smith Institute poll published in the English-language daily The Jerusalem Post had Kadima pulling in 33-34 seats, Labor 20-21 and Likud 15. The poll had an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.

The hawkish Israel Beitenu, an immigrants' party headed by Avigdor Lieberman, an emigre from the former Soviet Union, is expected to make a strong showing. Polls predict Lieberman will win 12 seats, up from two he holds now.

"He's (Lieberman) not corrupt and he'll do a lot of things that Likud couldn't do and Olmert won't do," said Shimon Tubul, a 30-year-old fruit seller at Jerusalem's outdoor market.

Pollsters said turnout could be lower than in previous elections.

"I'll be at home sleeping. It's the best thing to do," said Behruz Tatush, a 62-year-old from Jerusalem who voted for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the 2003 election.

Sharon was felled by a stroke on Jan. 4 shortly after he founded Kadima and is still in a coma.

The establishment of Kadima in November shook up Israeli politics. For the first time, a centrist party has a chance of upending the two largest movements, Labor and Likud.

When Sharon established the party, it was polling more than 40 seats, but since his stroke, Kadima's strength has diminished slightly.

"Kadima's central problem ... is that it is suddenly becoming a mood party and this is not a healthy situation," said Yaron Dekel, a political analyst with Israel Radio.

Under Israel's electoral system, the leader of the largest party gets first chance to form a coalition that controls a majority of the parliament seats. Olmert could invite both moderate and religious parties into his government.

Analysts say Olmert only could be denied the premiership if hard-line and religious parties win a so-called "blocking majority" of 60 seats and agree to form a coalition.

No party has ever won an outright majority in Israel's 58-year history.