OWN CORRESPONDENT, Jerusalem | Wednesday
THE Middle East has been plunged into a maelstrom of uncertainty after right-winger Ariel Sharon, a man vilified across the Arab world for his brutal conduct in the past, was catapulted into power as the next prime minister of Israel.
Charting a new road map for Mideast peacemaking, Israelis appeared to have picked Sharon – a veteran hawk who refuses to cede the Palestinians more territory or a foothold in Jerusalem – over Ehud Barak, who offered Palestinians a state encompassing most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, together with a share of the contested city.
Sharon says he does want to negotiate peace – but only after calm has been restored.
His victory was marked in the West Bank and Gaza by a flurry of violence intended as a message to Israel from the Palestinians that they will not be intimidated by the ascent to power of the man they know as the ”Butcher of Beirut”.
”It’s a disaster for Israeli democracy and the Israeli people, because they totally want something Sharon is unable to deliver,” said parliament member Yael Dayan.
Exit polls commissioned by Israel’s two main TV channels both projected a Sharon win by an overwhelming margin of 59,5% to 40,5% – about the same margin predicted in public opinion polls in the days and weeks before the vote.
For many Israelis, the driving force behind the choice was a sense of insecurity spawned by months of fighting. Although the great majority of the nearly 400 people killed have been Palestinians, Israelis have been badly rattled by bombings, drive-by shootings, abductions and ambushes that are seen as making increasing inroads into daily life.
In the course of the short campaign – triggered when Barak resigned eight weeks ago – the prime minister warned again and again that Sharon could plunge Israel into all-out war with the Palestinians, or even ignite a regional conflagration.
But Sharon countered by saying that calm must be restored before any meaningful dialogue can occur, and that Barak’s proffered concessions on territory and Jerusalem went too far.
Officially, Yasser A0rafat’s Palestinian Authority says it will work with any Israeli prime minister. But some of his top associates expressed deep misgivings. An Israeli commission found Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Beirut in 1982. – Sapa-AP