Ehud Barak resorted to the last argument
It turned out to be a conversation with Vladimir Putin
Yesterday, Israeli military personnel voted for the future prime minister. The rest of the citizens will come to the polling stations tomorrow. By all accounts, the outcome of the election is all but a foregone conclusion: polls show right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon leading his rival, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, by a wide margin. But the prime minister is not giving up - he is trying to enlist support from everywhere, even from Moscow.

Yesterday in Israel it was cold (only eight degrees Celsius), it was raining, and soldiers hurried to the polling stations in insulated waterproof overalls. Ballots and ballot boxes were delivered to units located in the Golan Heights on snowmobiles. Israeli soldiers who participated in the rescue of earthquake victims in India voted the day before.
Since Saturday, Israel has tightened security measures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli checkpoints have closed exits from almost all Palestinian cities. An unprecedented number of patrol cars were deployed on the highways. Moreover, for the first time, the army also blocked country roads. According to army sources, these measures were taken in order to secure the movement of civilian vehicles, which have recently increasingly come under fire from the Palestinians. In the past month alone, ten Israelis have died in such incidents.
Ehud Barak was on TV all weekend. He tried to convince voters that polls predicting he would lose by 20 percent or more meant nothing. “When the citizens of Israel enter the voting booths, they will understand that this is not about the elections at all. The most important thing is the fate of the country’s citizens and the future of all of us,” he said in an interview with the Maariv newspaper. And Mr. Barak made it clear that the country can enter a bright future only under his leadership. The prime minister argued that the clashes with the Palestinians, which have been going on for more than four months, are just an episode. He said he knew how to achieve peace with the Arabs and urged voters not to vote for Ariel Sharon, whom he called an "unstoppable extremist."
But the prime minister gave most of his interviews to Russian-language and Arabic-language media. Voters from these two groups are his last hope. Arab citizens of Israel (12.3% of the electorate) traditionally vote for representatives of the left camp. But now they cannot forgive Ehud Barak for the brutal suppression of Israeli Arab demonstrations this fall, which led to the death of 13 demonstrators. And they call the prime minister a “killer of Palestinian children.” Therefore, more than 60% of Israeli Arabs are going to boycott the elections, and the rest are going to vote against everyone.
People from the former USSR, according to polls, will vote in approximately the same way as other groups of the Israeli population. That is, the majority is going to vote for Ariel Sharon. But only 58% of Russian-speaking Israelis intend to go to the polls so far. The rest are indecisive. According to one political analyst, they are "tossed between hating Barak and fearing Sharon." Many Russian speakers blame the opposition leader for his visit to the Temple Mount in September sparking the current wave of violence and fear his rise to power could lead to a major war.
By the way, Mr. Sharon is now also giving out numerous interviews to Russian-language media, convincing voters of the opposite. In these interviews, he invariably says a few words in Russian, wanting to once again remind him that his parents come from Russia. Meanwhile, Mr. Sharon's campaign is trying to portray him as an ardent advocate of peace, highlighting the fact that his representatives met in Austria last week with representatives of Yasser Arafat.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Mr. Barak contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone. The Israeli prime minister knows very well that one of the main demands of Russian-speaking Israelis for the prime minister is a readiness for rapprochement with Russia, so another demonstration of close relations with the Kremlin before the elections will not harm him. In the conversation, Mr. Barak outlined his assessment of the internal political situation in Israel and assessed the prospects for a Middle East settlement.
In response, Vladimir Putin said that Russia is “with genuine interest” in developments in Israel, and expressed readiness to help overcome the crisis. However, apparently, the Kremlin will have to talk about this topic with another leader, since Moscow has already established contacts with the Israeli right-wingers.
LEONID J-GANKIN

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 19/P dated 02/05/2001, page 8

Authors:

Leonid Gankin