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Sharon drafts victory speech
TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was working on his victory speech Monday -- his election victory a foregone conclusion, according to the polls. He is expected to include an appeal to the Labor Party to rejoin a national unity government for Israel, according to his aides. On the eve of Tuesday's election, polls published in Israeli newspapers showed Sharon's Likud party winning between 30 and 33 seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel's parliament. The Labor Party, which triggered the election by walking out of Sharon's unity government last October, was projected to get between 18 and 19 seats. The secular Shinui Party was projected to get between 14 and 16 seats. Sharon will have to put together a coalition of at least 61 seats to govern. Aides said in his speech Sharon will appeal personally to Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna to join the government, something Mitzna has vowed not to do. Sharon is eager to form a government that includes Labor and, perhaps, Shinui, in order to give him a freer hand in backing U.S. proposals for the Middle East, including U.S. President George Bush's plan for the creation of a Palestinian state. According to an article in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest daily newspaper, Sharon's victory speech will include a "heartfelt call" for Labor to join a new unity government. It will also contain a commitment by Sharon to back Bush's framework for a Middle East peace. Right-wing religious parties, which have traditionally been Likud's coalition partners, are demanding much harsher stands against the Palestinians -- including, for example, expelling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from Ramallah -- as a condition for joining the government. As the election campaign wrapped up on Sunday, Sharon lashed out at the religious parties, especially the National Union Party, which he called "an extreme rightist party." "Only if we have power in the Knesset will I be a good prime minister," Sharon said in a speech in Haifa. "Extremism weakens us. Extreme positions will not allow us to get to where we really need to go." But Mitzna remains adamant that Labor will not go along with a new unity government. Mitzna told CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour: "Unity is very important, but unity cannot cover disagreement when it comes to the way (to deal with the Palestinians), and the Labor Party was part of the Likud government in the last two years and it helped nothing. "So the Labor Party will not participate in a Sharon government. "We will let Sharon if he wins, lead the country and we will struggle from the opposition to replace him." Calling himself a "marathon runner," Mitzna told CNN he plans to stay with his plan even if Labor does not win on Tuesday. If Mitzna changes his mind and if Shinui is invited to join the government, it will mark a historic first in Israeli history -- never before has there been a purely secular Israeli government. In the past, religious parties have always been included in the governing coalitions. Shinui leader Tommy Lapid said his party opposes the benefits the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox parties have managed to wring out of the government. He said while Shinui is not anti-religious, the party will not join a government with the religious parties.
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