 |
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Barak refuses to stand aside
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has rejected suggestions he stand aside in the election in favour of elder statesman Shimon Peres. With just a week to go until Israelis vote, surveys show Labour leader Barak consistently trailing hard-line Likud opponent Ariel Sharon. Under Israeli law, parties can switch candidates until four days before the election -- Thursday in this case. Barak has complained that the campaign had failed to ignite great interest despite their importance and rejected suggestions he stand aside in favour of Nobel laureate Shimon Peres, who is not currently in the race.
"Maybe the real campaign will begin only Friday, when it will become clear that no other candidate will be able to appear from the outside." Defending concessions he has offered the Palestinians, proposals that cost him support and forced him to call the election, Barak said the people must choose between peace and conflict. Hard-liner Sharon has a huge lead in pre-election polls after four months of violence in the region that has left about 400 people dead -- the vast majority of them Palestinians. A Gallup poll in the Maariv daily showed Sharon ahead of Barak -- by 52 to 32 percentage points. The poll used a sample of 1,300 Israeli adults and quoted a 2.7 percent margin of error. A Jerusalem Post newspaper poll on Wednesday found 49 percent of the 502 respondents voting for Likud party leader Sharon and 27 percent choosing Labour Party chief Barak, with a margin of error of 4.5 percent. The figures, compiled by the Smith Research and Consulting Institute, showed the gap between Sharon and Barak was growing. A sizeable 16 percent of people surveyed would not answer or said they would not vote and eight percent were undecided. A poll in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper found Sharon had a 16 percent lead over Barak and would win 50 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for the Israeli leader. Hopes fade for dealBarak appears ready to give up on a lightning peace agreement with the Palestinians, seen by some analysts as his last hope to turn the trend around. A week of intensive negotiations ended Saturday night without an accord. Acknowledging international efforts to arrange a pre-election meeting between him and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Barak told a news conference before the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem that if it takes place, the purpose would be only to declare that negotiations will continue. "I don't believe a major breakthrough is possible or proper before the election," he said on Tuesday. Sharon and his backers have charged that Barak's last-minute negotiations with the Palestinians were improper, because he turned in his resignation last month when he called the election after losing his majority in parliament last summer. Barak said any peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians must follow the lines of the deal he is working out -- a Palestinian state in about 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with special arrangements in Jerusalem. He has insisted that he would not accept a Palestinian demand to allow all refugees to return to their original homes in Israel, even if the issue scuttles a peace deal. Sharon has said he would not give the Palestinians any more territory than they now control under interim accords -- 42 percent of the West Bank and two thirds of Gaza. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Hope for new Mideast summit RELATED SITES: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top | |
© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. |
Recent acts of violence in the Middle East:
