Word: shimon
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Foreign Minister Shimon Peres sat expressionless in his hotel suite in Tel Aviv on election night as an aide handed him the first predictions. The figures showed Peres' left-of-center Labor Party virtually deadlocked with the right-wing Likud bloc. The small parties of right and left were racking up votes and gaining the balance of power. Peres slumped in his chair. If the trend held, his dream of an international peace conference and territorial compromise with the Palestinians in the occupied territories was doomed -- and his own political future uncertain...
...Many Labor leaders want no part of such a deal, but neither are they willing to seek a lesser coalition with the small parties. Declared Energy Minister Moshe Shahal: "It would be better to spend some time in opposition than yield to ultra-religious and ultra- nationalist demands." For Shimon Peres, either choice would be humiliating. After three campaigns in which he failed to deliver a Labor victory, pressure is growing on him to step aside as party leader. For now he is saved by the lack of a credible alternative...
...rival Labor leader and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he still had a chance of reaching an alliance with religious parties...
Some 80 miles to the north, alert security men watch the crowd gathered on a basketball court in the town of Shfaram. Shimon Peres sits motionless through the introductory speeches, hardly understanding a word since they are all in Arabic. Peres knows that while the Arab vote will account for as many as 14 of the Knesset's 120 seats, Labor stands a chance of taking perhaps four of those seats, the rest going to left-wing Arab parties. "If you vote against the Jews, there will be no peace," he bellows into the microphone. "If you are serious, give...
...fringe appeal is hardly surprising. Israel's so-called government of national unity is widely ridiculed as a mismatch that has locked Israel into a debilitating status quo. Both Labor's Shimon Peres and Likud's Yitzhak Shamir have defined the election in terms of peace and the Palestinians, but neither candidate offers any plausible solutions. Says Abed Darawshe, who defected from Labor to protest the government's handling of the uprising: "The intifadeh ((uprising)) has divided Israel more than ever. The two big parties simply have not convinced the public that they have the answer...