Sharon Plans to Run in 1988 for Prime Minister

Former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, chief architect of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, said today that he intends to run for prime minister in 1988 and hopes Jews will some day settle in Jordan.

“Not now, but in 3 1/2 years when there will be a new government, in those elections I will make a challenge,” Sharon, 57, told the Chadashot newspaper.

Sharon, now minister of trade and industry, was referring to elections for the leader of the conservative Herut Party in 1988. The party leader is automatically the candidate in national elections for prime minister.

The Herut Party and Liberal Party make up the Likud Bloc alliance, led by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Israel’s current unity government is headed by Labor Bloc leader Shimon Peres, the prime minister.

Sharon said he does not fear any investigation into the Lebanon war if the acts of the opposition Labor Bloc are also scrutinized “as far back as the War of Independence” of 1948.

Sharon, who has been both hailed as a hero and criticized as a reckless leader, was forced to resign as defense minister after an Israeli investigating commission found he “bore indirect responsibility” for the September, 1982, massacre of 300 refugees at two Palestinian camps in Beirut.

Sharon also said he does not recognize neighboring Jordan, which was created by Britain in 1920 out of the Palestinian Mandate, and that he hopes Jews eventually will settle there.