MIDDLE EAST: ThePrime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, yesterday trounced his opponent, Foreign Minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, in the leadership race for the right-wing Likud Party, according to television projections. These were later borne out by early results.
The margin of victory predicted by the TV polls was in the region of 20 per cent.
Mr Sharon, who was expected to address Likud members after midnight, had led in all the opinion polls running up to the vote yesterday by similar margins. Earlier, however, two attacks on Israelis - one in Kenya, in which three Israelis were killed, and another on a Likud polling station in the north of the country in which six Israelis died - looked as though they might help Mr Netanyahu, who adopted distinctly hawkish views during the primary campaign, to close the gap on the Prime Minister.
With voter turnout low as a result of the attacks, Mr Sharon made an almost panicky plea to the 300,000 Likud members eligible to vote to head for the polling stations. A low voter turnout, members of Mr Sharon's team feared, would help his opponent.
The Prime Minister called on Likud members not to allow "terror to frighten you" and force "you to stay at home. It's not important who you support. Don't let terror intimidate you. Go and vote. Go and vote". Mr Netanyahu's strategy of attacking Mr Sharon from the right - he had called for the deportation of Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat, and opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state - clearly backfired.
The Prime Minister, who has reiterated several times in recent days his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit a highly restricted one, now faces the newly-elected leader of the centre-left Labour Party, Mr Amram Mitzna.
If Mr Sharon has tried to strike a more moderate pose than Mr Netanyahu in the Likud race, he will no doubt attack Mr Mitzna in a bid to present him as an out-of-touch left-winger whose policies have already failed, especially the dovish ex-general's willingness to negotiate with Mr Arafat.
The contrast between the two men is sharp. While Mr Sharon has repeatedly said he will not speak to the Palestinians as long as the violence continues, Mr Mitzna has said that, if elected, he will immediately try to re-engage them around the negotiating table.
Mr Mitzna has also vowed to extract the Israeli army and settlers from much of the West Bank and Gaza Strip - preferably within the framework of a negotiated solution. If talks fail, however, he has said he would unilaterally withdraw from much of the Occupied Territories. The Prime Minister, who is considered one of the fathers of the settlement movement, has refused to comment on whether he would be willing to dismantle settlements, saying only he is ready for "painful compromises".
Undoubtedly, Mr Mitzna will also come under fire for comments in recent days by moderate Palestinian leaders who have suggested that a halt to attacks on Israelis will help the peace camp. "Helping to ensure the success of a peace government in Israel's coming elections is a major Palestinian interest," said Mr Sari Nusseibeh, the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem affairs and a leading moderate, on Wednesday.