MIDEAST: Shedding light on Ariel Sharon's shadow over the upcoming Israeli elections

Record ID: 837674

  • Title: MIDEAST: Shedding light on Ariel Sharon's shadow over the upcoming Israeli elections
  • Date: 23rd March 2006
  • Summary: (W5) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARI SHAVIT, POLITICAL ANALYST OF THE ISRAELI DAILY HA'ARETZ, SAYING: "Sharon's illness, his disappearance from political life, has affected Kadima surprisingly on the margins. The Sharon team and the people surrounding Mr. Olmert have been extremely successful in creating continuity and actually taking the popularity Mr. Sharon had and bringing it to Mr. Olmert. In many ways they did convince the Israeli public that Olmert is Sharon's heir and they have transformed the love and admiration for Sharon, for this political support for Mr. Olmert."
  • Embargoed: 7th April 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABG4CKVG93UC01EVCUHB0VD7YN
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  • Story Text: His image is omnipresent. Iconic footage of a young Ariel Sharon at war. A more elderly, almost smiling Sharon, on campaign posters.
    For his Kadima party, Sharon is a constant backdrop ahead of Israel's general elections on March 28 that the four-month-old centrist grouping is expected to win.
    Sharon has left his mark on the elections even if predictions that Kadima would be a one-man show have proven wrong since he fell into a coma after suffering a stroke on January 4.
    His legacy of disengagement from conflict with the Palestinians -- epitomised by the withdrawal of Jewish settlers and troops from Gaza last year -- is the central campaign issue for Kadima, now headed by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
    "There is no doubt that we wouldn't be in this framework if it wasn't for Sharon's policies. The whole concept of a new party Kadima, which is the dominant party and appears to be likely to be the party that will form the government after the elections, that was Sharon's doing. It was the result of his policies of disengagement and therefore you really have to understand these elections in that context of his shadow," Political analyst Professor Gerald Steinberg explains.
    Some analysts say the former general's highly unlikely recovery means Israelis may have seen the last of a generation of battle-hardened fighters at the apex of politics.
    Olmert is a career politician. His two main rivals, former prime minister Benjamin Netayahu of the rightist Likud and ex-union leader Amir Peretz of the left-leaning Labour Party, are also civilians.
    As an army commander, Sharon had a legendary record for battlefield victories.
    Just weeks before his stroke, Sharon broke from Likud because of hardline opposition to his pullout from the Gaza Strip. He formed Kadima, reshaping Israel's political landscape.
    "Sharon's illness, his disappearance from political life, has affected Kadima surprisingly on the margins. The Sharon team and the people surrounding Mr. Olmert have been extremely successful in creating continuity and actually taking the popularity Mr. Sharon had and bringing it to Mr. Olmert. In many ways they did convince the Israeli public that Olmert is Sharon's heir and they have transformed the love and admiration for Sharon, for this political support for Mr. Olmert," says Ha'aretz political analyst Ari Shavit.
    Olmert has taken Sharon's "Disengagement" politics a step further, promising to impose Israel's final borders by 2010 through pullouts from parts of the West Bank.
    Olmert and his Kadima party have also pulled on the heart strings of Sharon's supporters. Emotion and sentiment are the underlying tone in all of the party's campaign advertisements.
    Israel's Channel One political correspondent Ayala Hasson explains: "Everyone continues Sharon's legacy. Olmert and his team, Livni, Mofaz, etc, continues Sharon's legacy which is very positive. It's very emotional, even a little bit sad. You watch those spots, those features and you feel sad. You miss Sharon and you want to be part of this legacy and it's very emotional".
    While Sharon's role in Kadima was unique, he had also tapped into the disillusionment many Israelis felt with left-wing visions of peace with the Palestinians or the determination of the right to keep the occupied territories.
    Olmert is now seen as trying to wrap himself in Sharon's mantle and has gained support for pledging to continue along Sharon's route of unilateral policies.
    But Sharon's shadow will undoubtedly follow Olmert to the polls.
    "The election in Israel will be in Sharon's shadow. I think that although there is Olmert and Peretz and Netanyahu, I think that above all there is something like Sharon's spirit or something like Sharon's opinions that affect immediately the elections," one Jerusalem resident, Guy, says.
    "We feel his shadow in the Israeli streets. I think it is no accident that a picture of Olmert appeared late in all the ads, because there is constantly this tense sort of feeling that Sharon will return. Even Olmert in his own ads talks about how he is pursuing the legacy of Sharon," Rofem, another Jerusalem resident explains.
    Not long ago, the notion that Sharon, the one-time champion of Israel's settlements, would tear down part of his own project was unthinkable. Gaza was Israel's first removal of settlements on land Palestinians want for a state. Sharon had changed the face of the elections by showing that removing settlers was possible.
    Sharon's dominance in recent years also headed off any political challenge from former military or security chiefs, something analysts say is apparent in the current election lineup.
    But it's more the policies than the man, may say, which will steer the direction of the upcoming elections.
    "I think the support that the party that Sharon made before his illness concentrates on the issue, not on the man. In Hebrew you can say: 'not on the issue, but on the ish (man)'. Sharon's plan for disengagement and for if there is no partner for peace talks to fix in a unilateral way the finite borders of Israel, this is the issue. That is why Kadima gets almost the same support that it got when Sharon was its leaders. So I don't think this is going to change much," explains Menachem, a Jerusalem resident.
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