Editorial de "Ha´a retz" del 29-11-02

Ten days after the Labor Party chose its leader for the 16th Knesset, the Likud rank and file chose its standard bearer to seek the public's vote for the party. In the coming 60 days, both parties must present the voters with an orderly, clear doctrine for how they plan to proceed and deal with the critical issues on the agenda, topped by the conflict with the Palestinians. Given the clear worldview and focused working plan presented by Labor Party Chairman Amram Mitzna, the Likud candidate can no longer make do with vague, ambiguous statements.

The policies of the Likud-led government of the past 20 months have brought the personal safety of Israeli citizens, their welfare, and their mood, to one of the lowest points in many years. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's only answer to Palestinian terror was, and remains, a strong military hand and a cold political shoulder. The IDF is back in nearly all the Palestinian cities, it assassinates wanted men and arrests thousands, and imposes collective punishment on millions of people. The Palestinian Authority has been reduced to an empty vessel, and its chairman, Yasser Arafat, is alone in the rubble of the Muqata in Ramallah. This policy enjoyed popular support in Israel, a considerate American administration, and most importantly, the support of the largest political rival to the Likud, the Labor Party. None of Sharon's predecessors who reached the Prime Minister's Office at the helm of the Likud ever enjoyed such convenient conditions. There is also no ruling out that the determined campaign against terrorism contributed to the decline of support for the violence among Palestinians. A poll published yesterday in Ha'aretz shows that most Palestinians are interested in an end to the violence.

But the violence will not cease as long as the Israeli government encourages settlers to grab more Palestinian land, turning a blind eye and using a soft hand on those who harrass and persecute the local population. Freezing political contacts with the central Palestinian Authority and halting cooperation with its security apparatus in the West Bank and Gaza, paved the way for the terrorist groups and unbridled local gangs. Without a political horizon that would lead to an end to the Israeli occupation, the extremist minority grows stronger, and with it the terrorist attacks inside the territories and the Green Line. Sharon himself made note of how the security concerns influence the social and economic crisis. In response to the hard-line political and security platform his rival, Benjamin Netanyahu presented to the Likud voters, Sharon repeated general slogans, including a readiness to recognize the reality of a Palestinian state and the need to one day leave the Palestinian cities.

The primaries season is over. Labor's leadership is committed to renewing negotiations and disengaging from the territories within a certain time frame. Now it is the Likud's turn to present a clear platform, and at center stage, an answer to the question of how a government under its leadership plans to make Israel a safe and prosperous country for its citizens, liberated of the occupation over a neighboring people.