Israel decides as bloodshed haunts poll

JERUSALEM - Hardliner Ariel Sharon prepared to take over the reins of power as Israelis went to the polls last night.

Polling stations opened at 6 pm and were due to remain open until 9 am today. The outcome is expected to be known by 1 pm.

Sharon, aged 72, held a double-digit lead over Ehud Barak in opinion polls throughout the campaign, which was portrayed by the 58-year-old Prime Minister as a referendum on his peace policies.

Palestinians declared a day of rage to coincide with the ballot likely to reflect strong public anger in the Jewish state over Barak's proposed peace concessions and the violence that erupted four months ago in the absence of a deal.

In Gaza, a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier in an election-eve reminder of the bloodshed that has grown into a pool of Israeli and Palestinian discontent with a prime minister who swept into office in 1999 vowing to make peace.

Gunfire echoed across the West Bank and Gaza Strip as Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen clashed in an upsurge of violence.

"We are being called to decide whether between us and peace there is another blood-filled war," was how Barak described the election in a commentary in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's biggest newspaper.

Likud leader Sharon kept his silence in the final hours of what commentators called a lackluster campaign by both candidates. Barak, 58, submitted to a grilling by Israeli television interviewers - who kept on asking him where he went wrong.

Struggling to keep his emotions in check, but raising his voice at times, the Labour leader said a stronger Israeli response to the Palestinian Intifada was no solution.

"Separating from the Palestinians and putting a border between us is the true answer," he said, touting a plan he has pledged to put into motion should a peace treaty prove impossible to achieve.

The Army said it would seal off the West Bank and Gaza Strip on election day, as it has during polling in past years.

Sharon, long reviled by Arabs for military assaults that included Israel's costly 1982 invasion of Lebanon, has tried to shake off his warlike image during the campaign. He has ruled out any peace talks until the current violence stops.

At least 318 Palestinians, 52 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the Intifada erupted in September after Sharon visited a hotly contested Jerusalem shrine called al-Haram al-Sharif by Muslims and Temple Mount by Jews.

The White House, commenting on the Israeli election, said it has a "special relationship" with Israel and was ready to work with whoever wins the ballot.

But in Syria, state-run radio had a far different view of the two candidates. "The comparison between Barak and Sharon is like comparing someone who is bad with someone worse," it said.

A Sharon victory will represent a unique triumph for the veteran warrior in a country where old soldiers never fade away.

Eighteen years ago, Sharon was forced to quit as Defence Minister after an Israeli inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the 1982 massacre by Lebanese Christian militiamen of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Beirut. At the time, Israeli troops surrounded the two camps, Sabra and Shatila.

Barak's wife, Nava, told Israel's Channel One television he had made mistakes. "One of the mistakes was that he didn't devote enough time to his own public relations and his relations with people."

- REUTERS

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