Israel says 'No, No, No'

By Graham Usher
By yesterday morning the last counts showed that Ariel Sharon had defeated Ehud Barak by 62.5 percentage points to 37.4 in Israel's first ever prime minister only election, the largest margin of victory in Israel's political history and more, much more, than even the Likud Party had dared imagine. It also registered a voter turnout of just under 60 per cent, the lowest in Israel's 52-year history.
In the ruin of this colossal loss, Barak took one of the rare correct decisions of his 22-month tenure: he resigned as leader of the Labour Party and as a Member of the Knesset. The next days and weeks are likely to be dominated by the scramble for his succession and how this will play with Sharon's stated desire for a new era of "security and national unity" for Israel, preferably in the form of a coalition with Labour. But most Israelis are likely to view these intrigues in the same dudgeon as they went to the polls -- a lethal mix of disgust, indifference and, above all, vengeance.
On Tuesday, more Israelis went to shopping malls than to polling stations. "Don't ask me which candidate I prefer," snapped 70-year-old Haim in Jerusalem. "Ask me which candidate I dislike least".
And on that inverted scale of values the Israeli consensus was clear, whether Jewish or Arab. For rarely has a political leader been quite so loathed by quite so many people as Ehud Barak. This is how a Barak-voter described her preferred choice in a deserted polling station in a suburb of Jerusalem that, less than two years ago, had been a bastion of the Labour Party.
"I know my vote is an exercise in futility," she said. "I agree that Barak is a horrendous politician. He tried to impose an agreement on the Palestinians that has so exacerbated the conflict that I no longer believe a solution is possible. As for his treatment of the Palestinian minority in Israel -- and especially the 13 killings in the Galilee last October -- that was simply scandalous. But I cannot not vote because that would be to support Sharon".
The Palestinian minority, overwhelmingly, refused to buy that argument. The turnout in the Palestinian sector was barely 18 per cent, down from 75 per cent in the 1999 election when Barak promised to be the prime minister of "everyone" and 95 per cent of those Palestinians who cast their vote believed him.
They believe him no more, nor the party, the state and the ideology he represents. In the opinion of one Israeli analyst the depth of the Palestinian boycott is "the hottest news of this election" and requires a major rethink of the Israeli political map. "There is no longer a right and left in Israel," he says. "There is a right, left and the Arabs".
Palestinians on the other side of the Green Line expressed their rejection in less passive ways. As the polls opened in Israel Palestinian guerrillas fired on Jewish settlements in Gaza and on Jewish settlement roads in the West Bank. As Israelis drifted reluctantly to vote, clashes erupted in Ramallah, Hebron and Tulkarm, leaving another 40 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers injured. And as the voters returned to their homes, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon cried for a return to theirs and for retribution on the "murderer" Barak and the "butcher" Sharon.
West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, Marwan Barghouti, expressed the political meaning behind this rage. "If the Israeli people believe that in voting for Sharon they will have security, then the next days, weeks and months are going to show how wrong they were."
But it is doubtful many Israelis really believe Sharon will bring security. War possibly, at best an edgy state of prolonged "non-belligerency", but not security. So why did they vote for him? After four months of the Palestinian Intifada and the death of 50 Israeli Jews, the answer appeared to be the oldest political reflex of all: revenge.
"He will strike the Palestinians hard for striking us," said Haim, who has served in five Israeli-Arab wars, "from the independence to Yom Kippur". And after each war "I told my children and grandchildren there will never be another". Does he genuinely believe that by voting for Sharon he will give flesh to that vow? "Of course not," he answered. "Because there will never be a last war between us and the Palestinians". (see pp.4,5,8&9)
The view from Cairo
IN HIS FIRST reaction to the election of Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon as Israeli prime minister, President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday: "This is a decision which the Israeli people took and we respect their decision. At the same time, we hope that the peace process will resume and go ahead on the right path."
Mubarak, in statements to newspaper editors accompanying him on his return to Cairo following visits to Tunisia and Kuwait, pointed out, however, that recent statements made by Sharon during his election campaign "were not encouraging."
"In all circumstances, we will wait and see, and we should not rush to make judgements," he added. "Our hope is to hear and see movement towards genuine peace."
Foreign Minister Amr Moussa had a similar appraisal of Sharon's election victory. "If we were to judge only by [Sharon's] past policies and his political line as expressed in his statements, then one is certain that we will have a gloomy picture ahead of us," Moussa stated. However, the foreign minister was keen to avoid excluding any chance for cooperation with Sharon, leaving open the possibility that the new Israeli prime minister might adopt "new policies" and "build on understandings" reached during recent negotiations.
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