Sharon's victory
As widely predicted by opinion polls in Israel weeks before the Feb. 6 election, Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon defeated Prime Minister Ehud Barak in the premiership contest on Wednesday by a wide margin.
In his acceptance speech following the landslide victory, Sharon pledged a new path of domestic unity and harmony as well as security for the Israelis and genuine peace in the Middle East, while calling the Palestinians to abandon the path of violence and urging them to solve the conflicts by peaceful means.
To some people, it may sound strange that a hawkish leader like Sharon, who once refused to shake hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat whom he branded a "war criminal", can now speak about peace, let alone clinch a peace deal, with his archenemy. But that's politics. No one is a permanent foe or friend.
The question now is whether Sharon's rhetorical speech can convince the Arab world, particularly Palestinians, that the Israeli government under his rule can achieve progress in the already stalled peace talks initiated by the outgoing Labor government led by Barak?
Sharon is reviled by the Arabs for his part in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon nearly two decades ago. His visit to a disputed shrine in Jerusalem in September sparked bloody violence, disrupting ongoing peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The clashes claimed more than 380 people, mostly Palestinians.
Seen from this aspect, the peace process between the new Israeli government and the Palestinian Authorities looks even gloomier than ever. The more so because Palestinians are unlikely to get from Sharon what Barak had offered -- a political consensus that includes shared sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
But, again, nothing is everlasting in politics and changes can take place, depending on public demands and interests. This was acknowledged by the secretary-general of the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, who believes that Sharon might change his hawkish stance if the Israeli leader genuinely favors peace in the region.
Alarmed as the Palestinians and Arab world may be with the outcome of this week's Israeli election, they have no choice but to deal with Sharon, since the 72-year-old former army general has been democratically elected as Israel's prime minister.
Against the backdrop of uncertainties in the Middle East and the new U.S. administration under President George W. Bush which will not be as vibrant as Clinton in helping set in motion the peace train, other major powers like the European Union and Russia could play a more active role, impartially, to push the peace process forward.
Likewise, Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries to have full diplomatic ties with Israel, should take bolder measures to persuade their Arab allies of the de facto existence of the Jewish sate, while pushing the new Israeli government to bow to the United Nations resolutions regarding the return of all Arab lands and an independent Palestinian state.
Without this principle of coexistence, peace in the Middle East will be just an illusion.