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Sharon knockouts Barak
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"IT'S a knockout" was how Israel's press on Wednesday greeted right-winger Ariel Sharon's crushing victory over Ehud Barak in the nation's crucial leadership election.
In a stunning reversal of his political fortunes after being disgraced 18 years ago, Sharon charged to a 25 percentage point win in the premiership race over Barak, who quickly announced he was quitting political life.
"Sharon Swept up the Nation" was the front-page headline in the country's top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
"Barak Hit the Mat" was the headline on an analysis in the Maariv newspaper by Hemi Shalev, who said Sharon won essentially by default, simply because he was not Barak.
Israel's leading political professors expressed no surprise when the first exit poll result showing that Likud prime ministerial candidate Ariel Sharon defeated caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak by a landslide margin.
Sharon, leader of the right-wing Likud party who is deeply unpopular with Arabs, humiliated Barak by 59.5 per cent to 40.5 per cent, according to exit polls.
How could a prime minister like Barak, who won the election by a same landslide margin just in May 1999, lost so soon to another candidate?
Professor Emanuel Gutmann of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem cited three reasons for Barak's apparent failure: firstly, Barak's handling with the riots in the Arab sector last October, in which 13 Israeli Arab citizens were killed by Israeli policeman, turn away the massive and traditional support for Labour candidate from the Arab citizens, who constitute 12.3 per cent of all Israeli eligible voters.
According to Israeli Government Press Office, only 25 per cent of Arab voters had turned out to vote, in contrast to the last election in 1999, in which 75 per cent of Arab voters cast their votes and 95 per cent of them voted for Barak.
The second reason is that Barak failed to satisfy the Jewish population's demands about social welfare, which Barak had made vary strong commitments in the last election campaign, Gutmann said.
The third is the voting of Russian immigrants, who constitute nearly 20 per cent of Israel's eligible voters. Gutmann said that at this time, the large voting group stands solidly behind Sharon, just because they want to vote against Barak.
Lawmaker Naomi Chazan of the left-wing Meretz Party said that in her opinion, Sharon defeated Barak because he earned a great deal by snapping up two emotions of Israelis: fear and confusion, referring to the bloody clashes between Israelis and the Palestinians in the past four months and the cloud cast over the peace process.
Meanwhile, the former political professor continued, Barak lost the election because he lost a great deal due to another two emotions of Israelis: disappointment and anger, referring to Barak's failure to keep his promise on the peace process and on the social welfare issues in his 18-month term.
Professor Shmuel Sandler, chairman of Bar-Ilan University's International Communications and Policy Centre, diagnosed that the main reason for Barak's failure is that the majority of Israelis thought Barak had conceded too much and gained too little in the negotiations with the Palestinians, especially after the bloody clashes.
Secondly, Sharon had repeatedly claimed that once elected, he will try to establish a national unity government with Barak's Labour party, which touched Israeli voter's heart deeply. Israelis want unity at such a difficult time, Sandler said, adding that Barak failed to be conscious of the very trend.
However, most of these professors agreed that Barak's defeat in the election means a setback of the peace process, but not the end of the road to peace.
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