Center Party leader Yitzhak Mordechai has withdrawn from the elections for prime minister. His decision came less than twenty-four hours before the polls were due to open. Following Mordechai’s announcement, Benny Begin declared that he too would stand down. After the withdrawal of Arab candidate Azmi Bishara on Friday the way is now clear for a decisive contest between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and One Israel leader Ehud Barak
Until now, Mordechai insisted that he would fight on to the end, despite his steeply falling ratings in the opinion polls - down to 5-6% in the most recently published surveys. However, he has been under considerable pressure both from the press and from within his party to drop out in order to make a decisive result in one round of elections more likely. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, number two in the Center Party, held discussions with Mordechai last night, and it is believed that it was he who finally persuaded Mordechai to withdraw.
At the press conference at which he made his announcement, Mordechai said he was withdrawing because he feared that the hatred that had broken out in the elections could end in blood shed if the campaign continued to a second round, and because of his position in the opinion polls. He called on his supporters to vote for Ehud Barak and for the Center Party, saying that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu had failed in both the foreign policy and social-economic spheres. Mordechai stressed that he had made no deal with Ehud Barak.
Among political leaders, opinion is divided as to the likely effect of Mordechai’s withdrawal on the outcome of the election. National Religious Party leader Yitzhak Levy and Yisrael Ba’aliya leader Natan Sharansky both estimated that the move would improve Ehud Barak’s chances, and both said they would not rule out a Barak led coalition. Israel Our Home leader Avigdor Lieberman on the other hand said he thought Likud supporters who had gone over to Mordechai would return to the Likud and Netanyahu.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on May 16, 1999