Who's Afraid Of
Arik Sharon?

LARRY DERFNER

ARC YU TAKING MEDICATION ,

ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

/-

After Binyamin Netanyahu's
election as prime minister, many
of his opponents warned that
the real strongman in the new
government would be Ariel
Sharon. After all, Mr. Ne-
tanyahu owed his election to Mr.
Sharon's coalition crafting more
than anyone.
But the prime minister has
formed his government, and
Arik, as he is known, is not part
of it. Unless some unlikely re-
arrangement occurs, Mr. Sharon,
one of the most powerful, ac-
complished and feared military
and political leaders in Israeli his-
tory, will serve out this term as
a mere Knesset member.
"I hope the promises made to
the public before the elections are
honored better than the ones
made to me," Mr. Sharon said in
a television interview after it be-
came evident that he would not
be in the cabinet.
He has been offered a new
ministry, but it's largely seen as
a conciliation more than a spot of
prestige and power.
But his absence from the gov-
ernment is startling. It is the
clearest proof that Mr. Ne-
tanyahu has struck out on a
more independent, even defiant
course than any of his predeces-
sors.
Oddly criticizing Mr. Ne-
tanyahu's harsh, divisive treat-
ment of his political allies,
veteran Knesset dove Yossi Sarid
said, "The prime minister has
even managed to make me feel
sorry for Ariel Sharon, and that's
going some."
But Mr. Sharon is not taking
this lightly. He has been sitting
out the cabinet machinations at
his large ranch in the Negev
while enlisting the aid of pow-
erful rabbis and politicians in-
debted to him. He has also
received outspoken support from
legions of loyalists.
Mr. Sharon did in fact deliv-
er the election for Mr. Ne-
tanyahu. He performed three
all-important political deeds:
* He withdrew from the prime
minister's race and threw his
support to Mr. Netanyahu.
* He convinced right-wing can-
didates Rafael Eitan and David
Levy to likewise withdraw, which
united the right behind Mr. Ne-
tanyahu.
* He enlisted powerful Ortho-
dox rabbis, whom he had culti-
vated over the years, to instruct
their obedient followers to vote
for Mr. Netanyahu.
Having done this, Mr. Sharon
assumed he could write his tick-
et in the new government. ❑

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