This Week

The New Face Of Israel

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sraeli voters sent the country in a new direc-

tion Tuesday by overwhelmingly electing

the last of its second-generation warriors,

Ariel Sharon, as its new prime minister.

Sharon, a veteran of every war since 1948, has

promised an iron hand in dealing with Palestinian

•

A Sharon
supporter used
campaign stickers
to mock the masks
of Palestinian
terrorists. The
stickers read:
"Security and
peace with
Sharon."

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Sharon, a landslide victor, a zrms policies that Gaza City rejects outright.

ERIC SILVER.

Israel Correspondent

Jerusalem
ust as you can't argue with suc-
cess, so you can't argue with fail-
ure." That was the bleak signal
flashed to Palestinian Authority
leader Yasser Arafat by Ariel Sharon's
diplomatic adviser, Zalman Shoval, the
morning after the hard-line Likud chal-
lenger trounced Ehud Barak by an
unprecedented 25 percent margin in
Israel's prime ministerial election.
Neither Israelis nor Palestinians were
ripe for the final settlement of the 100-
year conflict Barak was seeking, argued
Shoval, an urbane former ambassador to
Washington. The time had come to
scale down ambitions and go for a long-

IT

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001

term interim agreement both sides could
live with.
In a soft-sell campaign in which he
evaded challenging questions — from
reporters or political opponents —
Sharon lulled the four million electors
with slogans like "Only Ariel Sharon can
bring peace" and "I am safe with Ariel
Sharon." Now they expect him to prove
it, though even his own voters-are far
from confident of his chances.
"I voted Sharon because I want to live
in peace," explained Yevgeni Finkel, a
37-year-old Russian-language journalist,
after casting his ballot in Gilo, a front-
line Jerusalem suburb that has come
under repeated machine-gun fire since
the Palestinian intifada erupted at the
end of September. Asked whether he
expected a quiet life if Sharon won, he

replied, "It will be more quiet than it has
been."
Another Sharon voter, a 46-year-old
tour guide who identified herself only as
Rina, confided outside the same polling
station: "Things are going to be
tough. It depends if Sharon is
clever. I'm willing to give him a
chance." Rina, a mother of two
children in their early 20s, was
one of the disenchanted 1999
Barak supporters who swung to
Sharon this time.

Pragmatic Peace'

Sharon is banking on what he
calls Palestinian realism.
"There is no new Middle East," said
his adviser Shoval, "nor could there be.
PALESTINIAN MANDATE on page 20

VOICES

"The Israelis want a new
`peace process' — one that
does not allow terrorists to
take pot shots at them
from across the street.
Prime Minister Sharon is
in the unenviable position
of attempting to convince
the Arabs that their killing
of Israeli citizens is no
longer the 'peace process.'
Of course, the Left and
the immediate world will con-
demn Sharon for taking the steps
necessary to win his argument.
Hopefully, and if the State of
Israel is to continue to exist, he
will have the great courage neces-
sary to pay them no mind."
— Jerome S. Kaufman,
Bloomfield Hills, national secretary,
Zionist Organization of America

"It's too early to judge what direc-
tion Sharon's government will take.
Whether he goes for a national
unity government or a government
without Labor will make a
difference in how the gov-
ernment pursues the peace
process. One has to remem-
ber that Sharon does have a
great deal of experience both
in government and military
service, and he could be a
successful leader. American
Jews have to continue to ask
our own government to stay
deeply involved."
— Allan Gale, Jewish
Community Council assistant direc-
tor for government relations