ISRAEL: ARIEL SHARON WINS HIS LIKUD PARTY'S LEADERSHIP ELECTION AFTER VOTE OVERSHADOWED BY ATTACKS ON ISRAELI'S IN KENYA AND NORTHERN ISRAEL

Record ID: 400110

  • Title: ISRAEL: ARIEL SHARON WINS HIS LIKUD PARTY'S LEADERSHIP ELECTION AFTER VOTE OVERSHADOWED BY ATTACKS ON ISRAELI'S IN KENYA AND NORTHERN ISRAEL
  • Date: 28th November 2002
  • Summary: (W1) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 29, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AND FOREIGN MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SHAKING HANDS WITH MEMBERS OF THE LIKUD PARTY ON STAGE 0.20 2. ZOOM IN: SHARON AND OTHER PARTY MEMBERS STANDING TO OBSERVE A MINUTE SILENCE OF COMMEMORATION 0.34 3. CU: SCREEN SHOWING EXIT POLL
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA1FYESDFUUPCKDUG0WZQI1FREB
  • Story Text: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has won his Likud party's
    leadership election after a vote overshadowed by deadly
    attacks on Israelis in Kenya and northern Israel.


    Challenger Benjamin Netanyahu conceded defeat after
    television exit polls showed Sharon had crushed him in the
    right-wing party's ballot, a first step towards retaining the
    prime minister's post the former general has held for almost
    two years.

    Sharon's victory was a first step towards keeping the
    prime minister's post in a January 28 general election. It was
    also a sharp blow for Netanyahu, whose hopes of returning from
    the political wilderness in a blaze of glory fizzled at the
    ballot box.

    But following a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned
    hotel in Kenya, the Israeli Prime Minister said it was not a
    night for festivities and the party members observed a moment
    of silence to commemorate the dead.

    "This is not a night for celebrations. Today we have
    witnessed such harsh terrorist attacks against Israeli
    civilians. An attempt to shoot down an Arkia air plane, that
    has taken off from the airport of Mombassa. The terrible
    murderous attack against Israeli tourists in the city and the
    harsh attack in Beit She'an, at the Likud headquarters... Some
    of these murders are a part of the bloodshed culture of Arab
    terror, against the Israelis and Jews wherever they are is an
    attempt of the terrorists to disrupt the election and the
    democratic system," Sharon said.

    Opinion polls show Likud, benefiting from a hardening of
    Israeli public resolve in the face of a Palestinian uprising
    for statehood, is on course to win the national ballot.

    Netanyahu, Israel's foreign minister, signalled he
    intended to remain in the caretaker cabinet Sharon formed last
    month after the centre-left Labour Party quit the ruling
    coalition in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements on
    occupied land.

    An aide to challenger Benjamin Netanyahu said the foreign
    minister telephoned Sharon to congratulate him on his victory.

    In a general election set for January 28, Likud is widely
    expected to beat the centre-left Labour Party because Israelis
    have shifted to the right in the face of Palestinian gun and
    suicide bomb attacks in a two-year-old uprising for statehood.

    "This evening I am joining you to send our condolences to
    the families and best wishes for the recovery of the wounded.

    Several minutes ago I called the prime minister Ariel Sharon,
    and I have congratulated him for being elected as head of the
    Likud and as our candidate for head of government. This is
    what the voters have decided, I am by nature a democrat
    therefore naturally I support any democratic decision, Now we
    must operate together all of us to bring a big victory to the
    Likud," Netanyahu said.

    Security is the burning issue for Israeli voters, a point
    underlined by a suicide car bombing at a hotel in Kenya that
    killed three Israelis and a missile attack that failed to hit
    an Israeli airliner taking off from a nearby airport on
    Thursday (November 28).

    Hours later, a Palestinian gun rampage in northern Israel
    killed six people.

    "It is the right of every nation, and the duty of any
    government to defend the lives of it's citizens. It is our
    right, our duty to demand from the nations of the world to no
    only to convey their condolences when we bury our dead, but
    also to support us when we are fighting for our lives, for are
    actual existence. I intend to continue and contribute for this
    effort. I will continue with you to help the prime minister,
    to help out movement to help and influence," the foreign
    minister added.

    A Channel One television exit poll gave Sharon 61 percent
    of the vote compared to 37 percent for Netanyahu among the
    305,000 Likud members. A Channel Two poll put the figures at
    58 percent to 40.5 percent.

    The Likud contest pitted Sharon, a veteran war horse,
    against a former prime minister who tried to outflank him on
    the right by opposing a Palestinian state.

    Netanyahu, 53-years-old, led Israel from 1996 to 1999,
    when he called a time-out from politics after losing the prime
    ministerial election to Labour's Ehud Barak.

    Sharon, 74-years-old, had dodged Netanyahu's barbs on
    security and Israel's ailing economy by laying the blame for
    the country's woes on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and
    unleashing fierce army offensives in Palestinian-ruled areas.

    But in a nod to Israel's main ally, the United States,
    Sharon has had to avoid a sharp intensification of the
    conflict with Palestinians that could harm U.S. efforts to win
    Arab support for possible war on Iraq.




  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register