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Barak: 'Fate of Israel' at stake in election
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- With just days to go before Israel's election, incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Barak said the "fate of the people of Israel" is in the balance. Despite polls that show Barak trailing rival Ariel Sharon by wide margins, Barak said voters are just now focusing on the stakes. Barak is now certain to face Sharon -- after a deadline for political parties to change candidates passed Friday. According to Israeli election law, parties can change candidates up until four days before the voting on Tuesday.
"It's only in the last four days that there will be real election campaigning and Israel, the public, will have to wake up and realize that it's not about the two beauties, myself and Sharon, but about the fate of the people of Israel," he said. Barak had been under some pressure to bow out in favor of his Labour Party colleague, Shimon Peres. But Barak, referring to his own candidacy, told a Labour campaign meeting on Thursday that "there is apparently only one candidate from our movement and it is with him that we have to win." Sharon, the leader of the Likud Party, sounded a confident note on the campaign trail. "I understand the importance of peace much better than a lot of politicians who talk about it ... With me, peace will be a peace for generations and not a gimmick of the elections," he said. More deaths reportedPeace remained elusive, however, as more deaths were reported Thursday after four months of bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israelis. Two Israelis and a Palestinian were killed in separate incidents. Sharon's chief ally in the election campaign is a growing dissatisfaction among Israelis with Barak's handling of the rising tide of violence that has left more than 400 people -- most Palestinians -- dead. The 72-year-old Sharon, a former army general, characterizes Barak's 18-month tenure at Israel's helm as a time of calamity that has cost the nation enough. Sharon: No more concessionsSharon has pledged to make no further concessions to the Palestinians, despite last-minute negotiations that have reportedly leaned toward Palestinian statehood in at least 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza and sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem. Sharon says he will grant no more territory to the Palestinians than what they already hold and that Jerusalem will remain in undivided city under Israeli control. Barak and his supporters say Sharon is a warmonger whose policies will only escalate the violence. "This is not just an election about people," said Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. "It's an election about concepts about how to make peace. What we've had for the last two or three years is a peace concept that hasn't been working." Final agreement possible?A recent Gallup poll found that Sharon was supported by 50 percent of likely voters, compared to roughly 34 percent for Barak. The poll had a sampling error of roughly 3 percentage points. Despite those numbers, Barak has steadfastly refused to step out of the race in favor of elder statesman Shimon Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel laureate who holds a slight lead over Sharon in polls asking respondents to consider him as a candidate. Instead, Barak appeared to pin his hopes on reported progress in the talks that concluded on Sunday in Taba, Egypt. Some Palestinian and Israeli officials have insisted the talks came close enough to a final agreement that one could be achieved in short order -- if Barak is re-elected and allowed to continue his policies. International efforts to convene a summit between Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat collapsed on Thursday when the Israeli leader said he would not meet Arafat or resume diplomatic contact with the Palestinians until after the election. The two were widely hoped at least to make a declaration on progress at Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Fractured Knesset a challengeRegardless of who wins, Israel's prime minister must find a way to work with a fractured Knesset that was on the verge of disbanding itself in favor of new general elections when Barak resigned on December 10, forcing the special election for prime minister. Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, appearing on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports," said he hopes Sharon, if elected, makes peace a priority despite his reputation as a hard-liner. "I hope that Ariel Sharon wants to be remembered as the prime minister who brought peace to his people," Baker said. CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Barak refuses to stand aside RELATED SITES: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
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