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CNN Today

Israelis Await Exit-Poll Results

Aired February 6, 2001 - 1:20 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the Mid-East, Israelis have less than two hours left to cast their ballots for the next prime minister. Turnout has been smaller than the 1999 general election that put Ehud Barak into office.

Mr. Barak sounded optimistic as he voted in his home district, saying that there has been a dramatic shift in sentiment over the past 24 hours.

Recent polls, though, show him trailing Likud leader Ariel Sharon by as much as 20 points. As soon as the voting ends, we should get initial exit poll results and have some idea which man will lead Israel through the next phase of the peace process.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour covering the events of the election, life now in Tel Aviv -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joie, you spoke about the candidates, and you've spoken about the opinion poll lead.

But what's really the crucial issue here is that this election is taking place against a backdrop of violence. It's been going on for the last several months.

And today, again, the Palestinians declared what they call a day of rage in the West Bank and Gaza. And according to Palestinian officials, 65 Palestinians were wounded. None live threateningly, but nonetheless wounded in clashes throughout the West Bank and Gaza today.

It's this violence, as I say, that's the backdrop as people in Israel here go to the voting booths today. And the turnout has been much lighter than usual.

Joining us from Ramallah on the West Bank is Marwan Barghouti, who is a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, and who's been instrumental in leading the Intifada on the West Bank.

Mr. Barghouti, thank you for joining us.

Let me ask you this. The Israelis, if they vote for Ariel Sharon today, if he becomes prime minister tomorrow, it is because they say that they're voting for a strong man. They feel enfeeble, they say, in the face of the Intifada. And they feel that it's Barak who's brought that upon them.

How do you expect Ariel Sharon to deal, as he says, with the Palestinians?

MARWAN BARGHOUTI, FATAH LEADER: First of all, I -- unfortunately, the Israeli people would elect Sharon. That is a very bad discharge towards the Israelis (ph) and towards the Arabs and the Palestinians. Because the history of Sharon is very clear to where everybody in this world, 50 years of bloodshed. And this mirrored up for the Palestinian people point of view and the Arabs and then some international community.

For -- so if they elect Sharon, what kind of message they send for the Arabs and for the Palestinians? And if the Israeli people think that Sharon will succeed to face the Intifada and put an end to the Intifada and the Palestinian resistance against the incubation, they'll discover after weeks, maybe after months that Sharon will fail to maintain or to guarantee the Israeli security. The Israelians will not feel secure if the Israeli incubation did put an end and finished, and if the Israelis did not follow the withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, including West Jerusalem.

AMANPOUR: Mr. Barghouti, you say that it would be a bad gesture if Ariel Sharon is elected.

But on the other hand, the Israeli people are saying that the Palestinians have given them a bad gesture. They say Ehud Barak offered unprecedented concessions, much of what the Palestinians have been asking for over the -- over the years of the struggle, and all they got was a war. So which one is it going to be?

BARGHOUTI: Yes, I don't think who is responsible that brought Sharon to the power is Mr. Barak. And I think Mr. Barak wasted two years, and he wasted a circle of opportunities to reach for peace and justice and permanent peace in the Middle East, when he refused to implement our resolution and when he faced the Intifada by aggressive attacks and assassinations and the siege and, et cetera. So I think the Israelis have to blame Mr. Barak, not the Palestinians.

And the second thing that the first prime minister will discuss with him, the final status issues, like Jerusalem and border settlements and refugees and, et cetera, is Mr. Barak. We don't know that this is a big concession. We are talking about our resolutions 224, 338, and 194, for the refugees. So we are not talking about percentage here and there.

ALLEN: Mr. Barghouti, it appears if Mr. Sharon is elected, that he will not go and honor the issues that were on the table, either at Taba in the last couple of weeks or Camp David back in -- back in the summer.

So do you expect the Bush administration to pressure Sharon? What is it that you are expecting from the Bush administration in this instance?

BARGHOUTI: Yes, I hope that the new American administration, Bush administration, will learn from the mistakes with where they -- by the past administration, by President Clinton and his administration. When they didn't lead the peace process, and when they were not honest or fair in their role. And they didn't pressure the Israelis enough to implement the new resolutions. They were trying to pressure the Palestinians to make concessions.

So we are looking for the new administration that it will ask the new government in Israel to implement our resolutions and find a new formula for the negotiations and not to start from the zero point. We have to start from the point we reached in Taba with Prime Minister Barak, not to return back, and not with the program that Mr. Barak -- Sharon is trying to put.

AMANPOUR: Mr. Barghouti, thank you for joining us from Ramallah.

As we said, it is unlikely that Ariel Sharon would be inclined to consider the agreements that were put on the table by Ehud Barak. In fact, he said, quite categorically, that he would not offer Jerusalem to be shared as a capital. There will be no dismantling of settlements. And the state that the Palestinians would be offered under a Sharon government, at least according to the Likud Party, would be just the land that they hold now.

So we'll see what lies ahead if there is a change in prime minister later tonight -- Joie.

CHEN: CNN's Christiane Amanpour for us in Tel Aviv.

Christiane will continue to follow up on the election there. As we've said, there are about 90 minutes left before the close of the polls today.

And Christiane, can you -- I don't know if you can still hear me, Christiane, but if you can, can you tell us anything how the results will come in and what we'll be seeing about 90 minutes from now?

AMANPOUR: Yes, we're going to have a special report starting, as you say, in about 90 minutes from now. We'll be taking exit polls, which are just the preliminary projections.

As you know, we'll be listening to Israeli television. They have their sources all over the place and have done their exit polls. And then we'll be going to the headquarters of each candidate, where we have our correspondents. And we'll be having a lot of analysis.

And if it's as big a lead as the polls have been suggesting up until now, the final results could come in fairly soon within a few hours of the closing of the polls -- Joie.

CHEN: Yes, that's Christiane Amanpour for us in Tel Aviv.

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