By Ori Lewis JERUSALEM, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The centre-left Labour party, which dominated Israeli politics for half of the Jewish state's 60 years, looks likely to suffer its worst-ever general election result on Tuesday. Once headed by Israel's founding father, David Ben Gurion, Labour has been steadily losing ground since the late 1960s as public opinion has moved to the right. The decline has only accelerated under Ehud Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier and a former prime minister whose policies strike some in Labour as not moderate enough. Labour spearheaded interim peace accords with the Palestinians in the 1990s under then prime-minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was shot dead by an ultranationalist Jewish assassin in 1995, and Shimon Peres, now Israel's president. During his tenure as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, Barak pulled Israeli troops out of south Lebanon and held peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria but failed to clinch deals. If opinion polls are correct, Labour will win even fewer than its current 19 seats -- its equal-worst result ever-- in Israel's 120-seat parliament. Polls have consistently shown the rightist Likud party under Benjamin Netanyahu set to at least double its current 12 seats, with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima close behind and ultra-rightist Avigdor Lieberman fighting for third with Labour. While polls also suggested that Barak, the defence minister, gained some ground domestically during the Jewish state's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, that does not appear to have been enough for him to swing opinion to the left. Despite Labour's expected fall, political analyst Shmuel Sandler said it could continue to be a part of the government. "There is certainly a case for Likud wanting to link up with Labour in the next government in order to sideline Kadima ... In politics, you do what's needed to stay alive," he said. CRITICAL BATTLE With hours remaining until the polls open, Labour lawnaker Shelly Yacimovich told Israel Radio: "The Labour party will not win these elections but the battle is critical for the future of the state and for the party ... for Israeli democracy, for sanity and for political stability." Sandler said Labour's problem stemmed from Barak's unsuitability as the leader of a left-leaning party. "Labour is unpopular because it has the wrong leader. Barak's leanings are far too centrist for a left-of-centre party. He should have been in Kadima or Likud," Sandler said. Labour's woes are a far cry from Israel's early days in the 1950s and 1960s when the party -- originally known as Mapai -- could easily form ruling coalitions. But under Labour Prime Minister Golda Meir's stewardship following the 1973 Middle East War, perceived at the time by many Israelis as a fiasco, the right-wing began to gain in strength until in 1977 Likud, led by Menachem Begin, scored a landmark victory over her successor Rabin. Among many Israelis, the Gaza campaign has shown Barak as a forthright and capable strategist ready to take bold decisions and unafraid to send soldiers into battle. But what the offensive also seems to have done is to type-cast him as the best man to hold the defence portfolio, and talk is of him working in a Netanyahu-led administration. Yacimovich said Labour voters were split between wanting Barak to stay on as defence minister and others who thought the party would only regain its stature if it sat in opposition. But she was not optimistic about the elections. "Regrettably, the polls are showing that the right-wing will have many more seats," the former journalist said. (Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Graffiti is seen on a wall in the Samouni family house in Gaza City February 8, 2009. During Israel's 22-day land, air and sea assault on the impoverished Gaza Strip, the ...
