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January 17, 2003/Shevat 14 5763, Vol. 55, No. 21
Terror helps Sharon campaign
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Contrary to the hopes of the Israeli left, the old adage that terrorism helps the right seems to be holding true in this election.
Scandals involving the Likud and its leader, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, had allowed Labor to climb out of a deep hole ahead of Israel's Jan. 28 election. Suddenly, Labor and its left-wing allies began to hope that they might prevent the Likud and its allies from winning the 61 Knesset seats needed to form a right-wing coalition.
This week, however, Labor's upward trend seemed to have peaked, and showed signs of reversing.
But another important factor seemed to be continuing Palestinian terrorism - despite a call by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat for terrorist groups to stop killing Israel civilians until after the elections.
At the weekly Cabinet session Jan. 11, Sharon said Arafat's call showed that he "was in control of terrorism."
Sharon accused Arafat of trying to swing the election to the Labor Party, whose dovish chairman, Amram Mitzna, has pledged to negotiate with Arafat if elected. Since taking office in March 2001, Sharon has refused all contact with Arafat and has convinced the Bush administration that Arafat must be replaced for Israeli-Palestinian peace to have a chance.
Arafat's ability and desire to control terrorism is, as always, a matter of debate in Israel. His own Fatah Party claimed responsibility for a Jan. 5 double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed 23 people. On Jan. 11, two more Israelis were killed in attacks, one on a farming community in the Galilee and one in the Negev near the Egyptian border.
Left wingers might have hoped that continuing terror would hurt Sharon by demonstrating that he had failed to provide security for the Israeli public. In fact, it seemed to aid Sharon, as voters felt he would be better equipped to deal with Palestinian terrorists than Mitzna, who has said he would unilaterally uproot Israeli settlements from the West Bank and Gaza Strip within a year if he can't strike a deal first with the Palestinians.
Whether Arafat condemns or condones terror, much of the Israeli public interpret such statements as meddling in Israel's elections.
In any case, the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah's own Al-Aksa Brigade show no sign of silencing their guns. This may tip the scale in favor of the right, as in past elections, but they couldn't care less.
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