Sharon's New Yorker interview makes waves Barak backers say U.S. interview demonstrates Sharon's true colors
By Naomi Segal
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
January 24, 2001
JERUSALEM, — Ariel Sharon's foes are trying to make
political hay out of an interview with the opposition leader that appeared
in
this
week's issue of The New Yorker Magazine.
In the interview -- most of which was conducted last fall, before
Sharon launched his campaign for prime minister -- Sharon refers to
Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat as a ``murderer and a liar" and describes
him
as a ``bitter enemy."
The article appears in the middle of a campaign for Israel's Feb. 6
election, in which Sharon is portraying himself as a moderate who will bring
Israel peace and security.
Indeed, author Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that when he spoke to Sharon
last week, the Likud leader was ``more cautious in his public
pronouncements"
than when the bulk of the interview was first conducted.
Sharon's political opponents seized on the interview as revealing the
Likud Party candidate's true ideological bent.
The interview ``speaks for itself, for anyone who thought Sharon had
changed," Prime Minister Ehud Barak's campaign said in a statement.
Barak also was interviewed for the article, but it was Sharon's
comments that drew the most attention in Israel.
At the time most of the interview was conducted, Sharon may not have
anticipated his candidacy.
Many Likudniks were pinning their hopes on a political comeback by
former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But Netanyahu dropped his bid, and Sharon subsequently was chosen
as the Likud candidate.
In his first public reaction to the interview, Sharon said Monday that
if
elected he would conduct negotiations with Arafat -- as he has in the
past --
but
based on different proposals than those favored by Barak.
Sharon, the front-runner in election opinion polls, has accused Barak
of
a willingness to make far-reaching concessions, including granting the
Palestinians control over parts of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, foregoing
an Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley and allowing Palestinian refugees
to
return to Israel.
Barak has repeatedly denied that he is willing to make such
concessions.
It was not immediately clear whether the New Yorker article would
provide Barak with sufficient ammunition to make up the deficit in the
polls.
In what could provide another boost for Barak's campaign, leaders of a
movement to replace Barak with Cabinet minister Shimon Peres as the Labor
Party's candidate for prime minister announced Monday that they are stopping
their campaign.
The movement's leaders said the effort has only helped Sharon by
splitting the ``peace camp."
At the same time, they said they remain convinced that Peres is the
stronger candidate to oppose Sharon.
Peres -- who has denied any direct involvement in the ``Draft Peres''
effort -- told an Israel Radio reporter he unequivocally supports Barak's
candidacy.
