January 16, 2003

Sharon predicts Netanyahu will return to power

By Gil Hoffman

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon predicted on Tuesday that his Likud rival, Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, would eventually return to the premiership.

Following a poll published on Monday in Ma'ariv that said Netanyahu would bring the Likud an additional four mandates if he headed the party, Sharon has made an effort to bring Netanyahu into the Likud campaign.

The two met on Tuesday and Sharon asked him to tape a commercial for the campaign, which is set to be filmed on Thursday.

Sharon invited Netanyahu to participate in a meeting with Likud mayors at his official residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, and another meeting in the same location with the Russian press the day before.

When Sharon stood up to leave the latter meeting, he left Netanyahu with the reporters. "You take over," Sharon told Netanyahu. "You know your way around here, and you will be coming back to live here soon."

Confidants of Sharon and Netanyahu said the two rivals have recently developed a "newfound chemistry." They said mutual respect has sprouted, with Sharon showing appreciation for Netanyahu's refraining from undermining him since he won the Likud primary.

Sharon's advisers contrasted Netanyahu with Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna's challengers, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Matan Vilna'i, and Ephraim Sneh, who have not hesitated to undermine him. Sneh received a stern rebuke from Mitzna on Wednesday for telling Army Radio that Labor should not have ruled out joining a Sharon-led national-unity government, a day after Mitzna convened the top party brass in a press conference to tell voters that Labor is unified on the subject.

Ben-Eliezer also left a door open in the press conference to join a Likud-led government, irking Mitzna. Vilna'i made headlines last week when he said in a televised interview that Mitzna's security plan is not the position of the party.

When Ben-Eliezer's advisers remind him to be careful not to be seen as undermining Mitzna, they whisper to him to avoid being like Netanyahu. But Netanyahu has remained silent during the Likud corruption scandals and avoided criticizing Sharon during a Netanya rally when some of his supporters pushed him to do so.

Netanyahu's spokesman said he made a strategic decision to back Sharon after he lost the race and he has stuck to it.

"Bibi is responsible enough to know that in tough times you have to unify," a mayor who is close to Netanyahu said. "Bibi is not an underminer, but the press likes to catch him, so he is going out of his way to behave properly." Sharon and Netanyahu are both expected to participate in a Likud rally Saturday night in Rishon Lezion.

Likud campaign officials said the Netanyahu commercial would be used to attract undecided voters who want Sharon as prime minister, but are considering voting for another party on the Right. The Labor Party criticized the Likud for incorporating Netanyahu into its commercials. "After the Likud realized that there will not be a national-unity government under Sharon, all it had left was to draft the extreme right and its representative, Netanyahu, who opposes all compromise," Labor response team chair Yael (Yuli) Tamir said.

Labor's decision to rule out joining a Sharon-led unity government cost the party support, according to a poll to be published in Thursday's Ha'aretz. The poll found Labor falling from 24 mandates in its poll last week to only 20, and the Likud gaining from 27 to 30.

Mitzna indicated that even he is not certain he will win the January 28 election in an interview with Educational TV, in which he reiterated comments he made in the press conference that he believes toppling Sharon will take more than two weeks remaining in the campaign.

"Ariel Sharon will not be prime minister," Mitzna said. "It may not happen in two weeks, but it may happen in two or three months."

Mitzna's spokesman, On Levy, said the Labor leader still believes the party will win, but in case it does not happen, he believes he will be able to bring down the rightist coalition Sharon would be forced to construct without Labor.

"Theoretically, if we don't win, we need to work for elections as soon as possible," Levy said. "A right-wing government may not succeed and we will go to new elections. Sharon will be busy with investigations and he won't have time to govern." Levy also denied reports from sources close to Sharon that the Likud has already reached an understanding on a unity government with senior Labor officials behind Mitzna's back, daring the Likud to prove the reports.

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