Boasting a giant lead in opinion polls, Israeli hawk Ariel Sharon, longtime scourge of the Arab world, has fashioned himself as the unlikely peacemaker as he campaigns to defeat Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who has tied his own fortunes to making peace with the Palestinians.
The 72-year-old Sharon, whose nickname is the "bulldozer," has softened his warrior image since December, offering Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat greetings for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday, and on Thursday professing his "respect" for the Palestinian "struggle."
Sharon's aides are placing their bets that the Palestinians will only listen to the Likud party strongman whom they have battled for a half-century.
"Barak is trying to say that Sharon's agenda is war, which is crazy. Obviously his agenda is to bring peace," said Sharon spokesman Jonathan Beker.
Alarmed by opinion polls published in Israeli newspapers Friday showing Sharon with a record 28-point lead over Barak, unthinkable only months ago, the caretaker prime minister's campaign team has started to remind voters of Sharon's checkered past.
Barak's Labour party printed an election ad in the Nazareth-based Arabic-language weekly al-Midan, showing pictures of victims of massacres at Lebanese refugee camps in 1982 coupled with the slogan, "You know who Ariel Sharon is!"
Sharon was defense minister when Israel invaded Lebanon and a subsequent inquiry declared him indirectly responsible for the massacre of some 1,500 Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila camps by a pro-Israeli Lebanese Christian militia.
Sharon condemned the al-Midan ad and the youth wing of his Likud party said it would sue, but Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, heading the Labor campaign among Israel's Arab minority, was unrepentant.
"There is no reason to hide the terrible aspects of Ariel Sharon's military career," Beilin told army radio.
Sharon is reviled among Palestinians for the massacres, and also for his September 28 visit to Haram al-Sharif, a disputed holy site in east Jerusalem, which they say sparked off the current Palestinian uprising in which more than 360 people have died.
Sharon has denied the charge, saying the Palestinians were looking for a pretext to revolt.
Nonetheless, Sharon has seemed to benefit from the ensuing violence.
Where Barak is now perceived as not being tough enough in the face of Palestinian attacks, Sharon is viewed as a man of action.
His posters tell voters "Only Sharon can bring us peace," while ads geared toward Russian immigrants, who voted overwhelmingly for Barak in 1999, boast of "Sharon, a strong man for a strong Israel."
Juggling his images as both war and peace-maker, Sharon has delineated the differences between himself and Barak when it comes to the Palestinians. "They know that with me they'll know exactly the limits I won't cross and that with me one doesn't have negotiations under fire," Sharon said on television Thursday, referring to Barak's goal of reaching a peace agreement before US President Bill Clinton leaves office January 20.
Sharon's long experience in government also draws a sharp contrast with Barak, an ex-army chief who only turned to politics a couple of years ago and is perceived to have failed in his promises to bring peace.
Barak announced his resignation at the end of last year and called for elections just for the prime ministership, without dissolving parliament.
He gambled that he could produce a deal with the Palestinians letting him claim a new mandate from voters, but only a month from the polls the peace process is still stumbling, amid deep pessimism on the prospects for an accord.
And Sharon and his supporters have made clear their disgust with Barak's willingness to negotiate as long as the Palestinian uprising rages.
"To negotiate while there is violence is the surest recipe for surrender and pressure," said Zalman Shoval, Sharon's foreign policy adviser.
"A Likud government is the best chance to renew the negotiations. ... It will be a much more stable and solid agreement than an agreement with a left-wing government which does not enjoy the support of the majority."
While the Likud party has refused to disclose the contents of a peace plan, Sharon said last month that Israel would have to make "painful concessions" for peace, but he has ruled out dismantling Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as any Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
