Israel : Defense in Middle-East

With 61 days to go for Israel's general election, at least two opinion polls position the right-of center opposition Likud ahead of its rivals with 32 Knesset seats (out of 120), tripling its present strength, whereas the ruling Kadima, led by foreign minister Tzipi Livni, would drop to 26, with two-thirds of its former voters dropping out.

Defense minister Ehud Barak is leading Labor, Israel's founding party, to virtual eclipse with no more than 8-10 Knesset seats predicted.