Travel  |  Business World  |  Women's World  |  Entertainment

Change Your Life!

Sharon's promise to end turmoil brings favor in Israel's election

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

February 7, 2001 

JERUSALEM- (Bangla2000/AP) - Ariel Sharon, pledging to halt months of violence and take a tough line with the Palestinians, appeared headed to a sweeping victory in Tuesday's election against Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who staked his job to a peace treaty he has been unable to deliver.

Sharon, 72, was widely regarded as too old and scarred by controversy to win election just a few months ago. Yet his reputation as Israel's leading security hawk propelled him to a lead of nearly 20 percentage points in the final opinion polls before an election viewed as a referendum on how Israel should deal with its Palestinian neighbors.

Hours before the polls closed, Sharon was already talking as if he were the winner.

"I will call tonight as I've called many times for a national unity government," he said in the northern town of Kiryat Shemona. "That is what can bring us the peace and security together."

In Jerusalem, Ruth Zaken, a 29-year-old accountant, voted for Sharon because she believed he was more likely to end the Palestinian uprising that erupted last September, and less likely to give away parts of east Jerusalem in peace negotiations.

"Maybe we need some time (for a peace deal)," she said. "Maybe the Palestinians are not ready for peace."

Barak's hope of an election-day turnaround showed no signs of materializing. Many Israeli Arabs - a key Barak constituency - were boycotting the polls to express anger over the deaths of 13 of their bretheren in riots last October.

A convoy of about 50 Arab Israeli cars, with pictures of the dead, drove from one Israeli Arab town to another in northern Israel urging people stay away from the ballot box.

"We won't vote for people who killed our martyrs," one man said over a loud speaker mounted on a car. "We won't vote for criminals."

Following the deaths in October, Barak declined to criticize Israel's security forces or apologize to the Israeli Arabs, who account for 12.5 percent of the electorate. In recent days he has expressed sorrow, but it did not appear to have much impact on the alienated Israeli Arab community.

The boycott contributed to a lower than normal nationwide turnout, another development that appeared likely to work against Barak, who was hoping for large numbers of undecided voters to go to the polls.

As of 4 p.m. (1200 GMT), about 43 percent of eligible Israeli voters had cast ballots, compared to 52 percent at the same time in the last election nearly two years ago, election officials said.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank - who are not eligible to vote - waged stone-throwing clashes in the cities of Ramallah and Hebron. Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and at least five Palestinians were injured in Ramallah, witnesses said. An exchange of gunfire broke out in Hebron, but no one was hurt, witnesses said.

Some Palestinian leaders had called for a "day of rage," but the protests did not provoke any major confrontations as of Tuesday afternoon.

Barak has warned repeatedly that Sharon could plunge Israel into war with the Palestinians or neighboring Arab states.

"The choice is very clear between the extremist, no limits, no borders policy of Mr. Sharon, and our policies which, despite all the difficulties, are determined to reach peace," Barak said Tuesday morning. "We are closer than ever in the history of the conflict to reaching an agreement."