Word: barak
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...sure, it was an election lost by Barak more than it was won by Sharon. And while the low turnout is certainly an expression of deep disillusion with Barak's peacemaking efforts, it's also a sign that many Israelis viewed Tuesday's poll as nothing more than an interim election - The Likud leader inherits the same parliament that brought down Barak, and unless he's able to beat expectations by persuading Barak's party to join him in a unity government, he'll be forced to field a minority coalition that could collapse at any point...
...Although Sharon is likely to jam the brakes on the frenzied peace talks of the weeks leading up to the election, his victory is a symptom of the failure of the peace process, rather than its cause. The Likud leader had campaigned against what he saw as Ehud Barak's reckless handling of negotiations with the Palestinians, and has made no secret of the fact that he plans a major rewind of the peace process - his message to the Palestinians has been to disregard any offers made by the Barak government. Rather than trying to finalize a peace agreement, Sharon...
...irony of Sharon's victory, of course, is that most Israelis oppose his thinking - the fact that a man so widely loathed in Israeli society could be elected prime minister is a sign of Israel's deep disillusion with the peace process. Sharon didn't win as much as Barak lost. Too many of the prime minister's natural supporters stayed away from the polls, in protest over his handling of negotiations and the Palestinian uprising. Early polls indicate a turnout as low as one in three eligible voters, reflecting the usually active electorate's distaste for the choice...
...Barak's goose may actually have already been cooked last October, when Israeli police fired on Israeli-Arab youths protesting Sharon's visit to the precincts of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque - "peace" candidates find it almost impossible to win Israeli elections without the votes of the 1 million-strong Israeli-Arab community, and last year's shootings left that community unwilling to go the polls to save Barak...
...Sharon, of course, will face an uphill battle to cobble together a parliamentary majority, and no one will be surprised if Israelis are back at the polls within a year. And that election could see comebacks by everyone from Shimon Peres or Barak to Benjamin Netanyahu. Because there's no such thing as being politically dead in Israel - until three days before the election, polls were showing that three-time loser Peres had a better chance than Barak of beating Sharon, who enjoyed a huge lead despite being held responsible for two decades of Israeli misery in Lebanon...