EDITORIAL: Ironies abound in the Israeli election

Published on Jan 25, 2003


A few weeks ago it seemed possible that Israel's dovish Labour Party might be able to make a real contest of Tuesday's general election. The campaign of incumbent Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was struggling. The wind had been knocked out of its sails by the revelation that he had accepted a US$1.5-million [Bt64-million] loan from a foreign businessman to cover some illegal election debts. And the timing seemed perfect - to outsiders at least - for an alternative to the abrasive style of leadership that has mired Israel in bloody conflict with the Palestinians for the last two years.

The poll, it seemed, would be a perfect democratic exercise offering voters the choice between the military approach and the peaceful path of negotiations.

Those hopes for a peace, and the euphoria in Labour - the party that pioneered Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - didn't last long, though. Support for Sharon dipped only temporarily, and surveys released in the last few days suggest that the old warrior's Likud Party will win comfortably while Labour is heading for its worst electoral showing in history.

How did Labour reach this dark junction, especially after two years of Sharon's leadership which one newspaper, the Yediot Aharonot, described as a "resounding failure"?

The economy is in decline, the country's international image is at a low, and there is no sign of a peace breakthrough with the Palestinians. Indeed, the worse things seem to get in Israel, the more popular Sharon becomes with the voters.

The answer to this paradox would seem to lie in Sharon's ability to tap the electorate's security fears, and the resignation of many voters to the idea that there is no alternative to an all-but-continuous conflict.

The voters stand behind Sharon not because of any conviction that he has a solution to the fighting that in 28 months has cost the lives of more than 2,700 people, one quarter of them Israelis, wreaked economic havoc and whipped up passions against Israel throughout the Arab world. They support him because they see the 74-year-old ex-general as the one who can best shield them from harm and strike back at their enemies.

At the same time Sharon has shrewdly managed to lay all the blame for the troubles with the Arabs on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He was at it again over the weekend, accusing the European Union of being biased against Israel while saying the "road map" for Middle East peace that was drafted by the EU along with the United States and the United Nations would lead nowhere as long as outsiders didn't realise that Arafat needed to be removed from power.

Yet while Lukid will likely get the most seats in Tuesday's poll and Sharon be returned as leader, their strategy is not sustainable.

The truth is that Labour's position - unconditional talks with the Palestinians -represents the only chance Israel has of seeing peace return to the region.

Whatever the result of the elections on Tuesday, Israel will eventually have to come back to a position closer to Labour's. There is simply no alternative to negotiation.