But Foes Say He’ll Now Seek to Win Prime Minister’s Job : Sharon Backers Plan Hero’s Welcome

Supporters of former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon expressed doubt Thursday that there will be any political fallout from his unsuccessful lawsuit against Time magazine, and at the same time were planning a hero’s welcome for the controversial architect of Israel’s war in Lebanon.

But Sharon’s political enemies predicted that he will try to use the case as a springboard to the prime minister’s office and that at the very least he will return to put strong right-wing pressure on the national unity government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who appointed Sharon defense minister in 1981 and supported him throughout Israel’s military thrust to Beirut in the summer of 1982, commented: “Although from the purely legal point of view Ariel Sharon did not get any award, (he) won a moral victory.”

Yuval Neeman, a member of the Knesset (Parliament) representing the rightist Tehiya (Renaissance) Party, said that the jury’s verdict “helps to remove the accusation that Israel is responsible for the massacre in the Sabra and Chatilla camps.”

In the disputed Time cover story, the magazine reported that Sharon had “discussed” with Lebanon’s Christian militia Falangists the need to avenge the death of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel in 1982. The next day, the Falangists slaughtered an estimated 700 Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps outside Beirut.

Celebration at Airport

Sharon sued for $50 million, and a jury decided Thursday in New York that although the Time article had been inaccurate and had defamed Sharon, it had shown no malice, a requirement in libel cases against public figures.

Following the court action, Sharon’s supporters were planning to welcome him when he arrives at the airport here. A spokesman said that there will be placards and flowers and singing and dancing.

David Magen, a Sharon loyalist and, like Sharon, a Knesset member representing the Likud bloc, said on Israeli television that he sees no connection between the trial and Sharon’s political future.

Sharon’s political opponents, however, took some consolation from Time’s victory. Shlomo Avineri, a political scientist at Hebrew University, said Sharon “comes back stronger than he left, but certainly not with the sort of impact he’d like to have had.”

But even Sharon’s detractors had no sympathy for Time, which, as one of them put it, was guilty of “at best sloppy journalism and at worst biased reporting.”

Sharon, in an interview with the right-leaning newspaper Yediot Ahronot, admitted earlier this week that he wants to become prime minister of Israel, but added, “I’m in no hurry.”

He noted that under the agreement that spawned Israel’s national unity government, Yitzhak Shamir, who heads the Likud bloc, is to take over as prime minister from Peres in October, 1986, and said: “That’s why I’m not talking about anything in the short range.”

“Sharon is scoring points, but if he can’t cash them in in the next couple of months they won’t do him much good,” said a senior Israeli official not connected with any political party.