The recent shooting attack in Israel will no doubt do a lot to move Israeli public opinion even farther to the right, perhaps the farthest it has been since the Intifada started back in September (?) last year. Now, in a depressing and ironic twist of fate, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon looks like he will face stiff competition in the next round of elections from someone even more conservative than he is(!): Benjamin Netanyahu. "Bibi," as the former prime minister is widely known, has stated that he wants to overthrow Arafat and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. These views are not completely contradictory to Sharon's, but Sharon has said (admitted, rather) that a Palestinian state should exist.

Unfortunately, the effects of the Intifada have only split even wider the gap between the objectives and mindsets of the Israelis and the Palestinians (but then again, wasn't the object of the Intifada in the first place to create instability that would undermine chances for compromise?). The Israeli public has shown that they feel the dovish approach of Barak is ineffective with the election of the conservative Sharon. Several months later and quite honestly we're no closer to a peace deal, even with the retrospective influence of September 11th. So what is the Israeli public to do now? With attacks continuing, and the compromise approach already a dead horse in many people's minds, opinion polls show that perhaps an even more conservative approach is needed with the Palestinian issue. That's right, it seems that Netanyahu may have a very strong chance of returning to power. What will happen? I think the conservative approach of Sharon, combined with the dovish influence of Shimon Peres would be better than any new Netanyahu government. However, I do feel Sharon is just not the right leader for Israel, which needs a figurehead that would do more to gain and keep support and approval in the international community.

Aaron G.

P.S.-Let's have a discussion about Israeli politics, with no inflammatory posts by propaganda-brainwashed radical who don't bother to analyse the situation and only spout the nonsense of their local extremist media outlet/government.