Sharon’s Election Sets Off Whirl of Emotions in the Arab World

Out of work since the Palestinian intifada erupted four months ago, the men at Beit Jala’s main coffee shop played cards Wednesday and wondered how much worse things can get under Israel’s prime minister-elect, Ariel Sharon.

“Who is more dangerous, Sharon or Barak?” mused Hussein Farag. It was lame-duck Prime Minister Ehud Barak, he said, who started “a war” against the Palestinians. Will Sharon be the one to finish it?

“Sharon is a murderer,” said Farag’s friend Samir Mitri, a tour guide. “But times change.”

Throughout the Palestinian-ruled West Bank and Gaza Strip, and elsewhere in the Arab world, Sharon’s landslide election and resounding defeat of Barak on Tuesday prompted a gamut of emotions among leaders and ordinary people alike: horror, indifference, defiance, concern.

Even though Barak offered unprecedented concessions to the Palestinians, no one was mourning him. Many Arabs have come to blame Barak for the violence that has claimed about 320 Palestinian lives in the last four months. But Sharon inspires dread in many.

Syrian newspapers said Sharon’s victory was a declaration of war. Jordanian officials displayed a wait-and-see attitude, an approach echoed Wednesday by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon burned Sharon’s swastika-decorated effigy, and Palestinian militants in the West Bank vowed to press ahead with their armed uprising against Israeli occupation.

Sharon is remembered in the Arab world for leading Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and for his role in massacres of Palestinians, including a 1953 raid on the West Bank village of Kibya and the slaughter by Lebanese Christian militia members of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon; the refugee camps were under Israeli control.

And his provocative Sept. 28 visit to Jerusalem’s most disputed holy site, claimed by Muslims and Jews alike, helped ignite the clashes that have swept the region since.

In Beit Jala, there is special reason to be worried. During the campaign, this largely Christian Palestinian town was singled out for punishment by Sharon and the more extremist politicians around him.

Beit Jala sits across a wide valley from Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood on the southern edge of Jerusalem. Although relatively quiet in recent weeks, Palestinian gunmen routinely opened fire from Beit Jala toward Gilo during the intifada, and Israeli troops retaliated with heavy machine-gun and tank fire. The residents of Gilo demanded that Sharon provide them with better protection.

Political writer Hannah Kim of the influential Haaretz newspaper quoted Sharon last month as saying he would take care of shooting on Gilo by attacking Beit Jala block by block. Sharon’s aides denied that he made the comment, although the statement accurately reflects the position of some of the politicians likely to join his government.

Nadim Hadweh, a city engineer for Beit Jala, was of two minds Wednesday. On the one hand, he said, it makes no difference who leads Israel. Nothing will change. And if Sharon does crack down more forcefully on the Palestinians, as has been suggested, then Hadweh said he expects international pressure to rein him in.

“He can’t play by himself,” he said. “The whole world is watching. Sharon will say anything to get elected, and then maybe he will be more rational.”

Farag, in the coffee shop, was more worried. “Sharon is a troublemaker,” he said. “Sharon and the people around him are already talking about revenge. There is going to be a huge explosion.”

Since the intifada erupted, Beit Jala and much of the West Bank have been under “closure,” meaning many residents such as Farag aren’t able to leave their towns for work or school. The once-profitable casino in Jericho, where Farag worked, has been closed for almost four months.

Palestinian political leaders said that efforts to reach a peace agreement will fail unless Sharon is willing to pick up where Barak left off. Yet judging by Sharon’s proposals thus far, that is unlikely. Although Barak was prepared to yield nearly 95% of the West Bank, Sharon has said he would allow the Palestinians less than half that.

“Mr. Sharon should not expect us to go back to point zero,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Wednesday. “We don’t want negotiations just for the sake of negotiations. We must begin the negotiations where we left off. They must be meaningful negotiations.”

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat called a meeting for late Wednesday to examine the incoming Israeli government. Like many Israelis, Arab leaders said they hope that Sharon is an older, wiser man, not the “old Sharon,” the bulldozer warrior known for flouting the rules.

They also will have to wait to see what kind of government the 72-year-old right-wing politician forms--whether he is able to incorporate more moderate members into his coalition or is forced to rely on extremists.

Jordan and Egypt, the two Arab states that have peace treaties and diplomatic ties with Israel, sounded wary Wednesday. Relations were already strained, but the two governments left open the possibility of rapprochement with Sharon.

In Amman, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali abu Ragheb warned against “premature judgments” of Sharon.

Mubarak wondered whether Sharon’s policies will be “of peace or of suppression.”

“We shall wait and see and not hurriedly judge things,” Mubarak told Egyptian journalists in Cairo. “We hope that the peace process will resume and move on the right track, although recent remarks by Mr. Sharon are not encouraging.”

Sharon on Wednesday reiterated his declaration that Jerusalem, the holy city claimed by Palestinians and Israelis, will remain the capital of Israel “for all eternity.”

Arab leaders may have been tactful in their initial reactions to the Sharon election, but newspapers probably reflected popular opinion a lot more accurately.

“The Assassin Wins Israeli Premiership,” declared Egypt’s opposition Al Wafd newspaper. “The Butcher Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister” was the headline of the United Arab Emirates’ Al Ittihad newspaper.