Reply #3: Europeans fearful over rise of right wing in Israeli elections

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"As the two leading candidates in Israel's election continued to claim victory, many Europeans expressed fear Wednesday that the shaky peace process was the real loser in the nearly deadlocked vote.

With an ultranationalist in the role of kingmaker, many were predicting that the hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually prevail over the moderate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - hardening the government's stance in already stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The ambiguous election results threaten President Barack Obama's desire to make a peace deal an urgent priority, as signaled by his appointment of veteran negotiator Sen. George Mitchell as special envoy, European politicians and commentators said.

Andrew Gwynne, a Labour Party legislator in Britain who chairs a pro-Israeli group, said he was disappointed by the results, which he said are likely to bring Netanyahu's rightwing Likud Party back to power.

"That seems the most realistic outcome, sadly, although I would like to see a progressive government committed to the peace process," said Gwynne, chairman of Labour Friends of Israel.

In the past, Netanyahu has strongly resisted compromising with the Palestinians.

The rising influence of Avigdor Lieberman, whose ultranationalist party won enough seats to become the third-leading force in Israel's Parliament, also caused alarm. His party pushed Israel's once formidable Labor Party, which has often pursued peace, into fourth place.

"Can you imagine anything further from the proposals of Barack Obama than the xenophobic ideas proposed by Lieberman," asked Italy's left leaning La Repubblica newspaper.

The Swiss daily newspaper Basler Zeitung said the vote showed the majority of Israelis don't believe in peace and that impetus toward a settlement must now come from outside."

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