Word: netanyahu
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...great in any job except prime minister. A unity government could actually survive for some time, because it would suit both leaders to avoid a new election. After all, if there was a new election for both parliament and the prime minister's job, Sharon would be challenged by Netanyahu for the leadership of his party. And Barak, too, would probably face an internal challenge...
...eyes. For Barak, keeping the talks going may be a frantic effort to persuade Israeli-Arab voters (about 20 percent of the electorate) to go to the polls and vote for him. It was the withdrawal of Israeli-Arab support that cost Shimon Peres the 1996 race against Benjamin Netanyahu, and they helped Barak trounce Netanyahu three years later. But the killing of some 13 Israeli-Arab youths by police during protests in support of the Palestinian intifada has embittered the community against Barak's government, and his chances of winning their support are minimal even in the face...
...support the prime minister so as to avoid splitting the peace camp, although the strength of the challenge by arch-dove Peres bodes ill for Barak's efforts to regain the confidence of an electorate that had, only eight months ago, handed him a landslide victory over Benjamin Netanyahu. There also appears to have been some horse-trading going on, with Peres having been offered "a senior position in accord with his experience and ability." It was not clear what that job might be or whether he would take...
...While Barak was never going to back out of the race, opinion polls certainly gave Peres the right to throw his hat in the ring: Despite carrying a "loser" label after having been beaten by Netanyahu in 1996 and losing a parliamentary vote earlier this year for the ceremonial position of president, current polls give Peres a better chance than Barak of beating Sharon. Moreover, Israelis rate him as the best man for the job of making peace with the Palestinians. But polls, as Peres himself once noted, are like perfume - they should be smelled, but not swallowed. Israeli voters...
...Sharon will wage pretty much the same campaign as Benjamin Netanyahu would have, although the former prime minister's disastrous first term would have offered a bigger target for Barak's attack dogs. Instead, they'll blame Sharon for the Lebanon war, which Barak ended last June in a move that was welcomed by Israelis across partisan lines. And they'll charge that the methods that have earned Sharon the nickname "The Bulldozer" are unlikely to bring peace. But Sharon's team will hammer Barak on the breakdown of the peace process, accusing him of dangerous...