Palestinians Don't See 'Peace Coalition' after Israel Vote

Israel's elections, which saw an even split between rightwing and center-left blocs, are unlikely to produce a coalition bent on reviving peace talks, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

"I don't see a peace coalition or a peace camp emerging now and revitalizing itself," Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official with the Palestine Liberation Organization, told reporters.

"We don't think that suddenly the sun is out and peace is on the horizon," she said of the vote which saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu win a narrow victory with the new centrist Yesh Atid, which wants to renew peace talks, taking second place.

The results could see Netanyahu piecing together a center-right government rather than one leaning strongly to the right as had been previously expected.

"It's going to be extremely difficult, particularly given that if Netanyahu joins with the so-called moderate parties, this will make him more palatable to the rest of the world," Ashrawi said.

That could see the international community giving him "more room" for maneuver and "will improve his image with the West," she predicted.

Israel had already put in place "alarming moves and plans" and she said it was unlikely that any new coalition would reverse them.

"I don't see how you can have a coalition that will undo these plans and these steps on the ground, that's not very likely," she said in reference to a raft of settlement expansion plans announced in the past two months.

"We know that the policies and measures put in place by the Israeli government are not going to be undone or easily reversed or changed."

Direct peace talks, which began in September 2010 lasted a brief three weeks before collapsing over the issue of Israel's settlement building on land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Throughout the election campaign, which began in October, Israel has speeded up the approvals process for thousands of new settler homes as Netanyahu fought to burnish his rightwing credentials in the face of a rising electoral challenge from the far-right national religious Jewish Home.

The Palestinians say they will not return to negotiations while settlement building continues. Israel says it will not enter talks while the Palestinians insist on laying down preconditions.