Sharon Calls For National Unity

Bolstered by a resounding election victory, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday called for national unity against "the murderous hatred" of Palestinian militants, but his efforts to form a broad-based coalition are likely to be thwarted by the defeated Labor party.

Sharon might be forced into an alliance with ultranationalist parties that want to block U.S.-backed peace moves and spur him to even tougher moves against the Palestinians. Israel TV quoted Sharon as saying off-camera that he'd rather call new elections than preside over such a coalition.

Before plunging into weeks of haggling over the coalition, facing a parliament with 13 parties, Sharon savored victory for a few hours. As perhaps Israel's most controversial politician who was once considered unelectable, the 74-year-old veteran of military and political wars pulled off what no prime minister has achieved since founding father David Ben-Gurion in 1961 calling an early election and winning.

Sharon's Likud doubled its strength, from 19 to 37 seats in the 120-member parliament. Likud's political rival, the center-left Labor, posted its worst-ever showing, dropping from 26 to 19 seats.

Wednesday morning's Yediot Ahronot newspaper had a triple headline on its front page: "Sharon wins, the left crashes, Lapid leaps," referring to pundit-turned-politician Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, head of the centrist Shinui Party, which more than doubled its strength to 15 seats, becoming the third-largest faction.

Sharon profited from the Israeli electorate's shift to the right in response to 28 months of fighting with the Palestinians. Many Israelis are angry at the Palestinians, believing they lied about wanting peace and responded to a reasonable offer with violence. Voters blamed Labor, which led the failed peace negotiations, for the nation's troubles.

Addressing Likud supporters in Tel Aviv early Wednesday, Sharon said Israelis must unite against external threats. "The differences between us are dwarfed by the murderous hatred of the terror organizations," he said, calling on all Zionist parties to join his coalition.

Sharon has said he wants to revive his 20-month alliance with Labor, but he did not mention the party by name in his victory speech or offer any policy incentives that might prompt Labor to renege on its campaign promise to stay out of a Sharon government.

In his concession speech, Mitzna said he would lead a spirited opposition and prepare Labor for the next election. "Politics are a marathon, and we are only in the first few kilometers. It is no shame to be in the opposition, and I promise you that our time there will be short," said the 57-year-old former general, who champions a quick withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and much of the West Bank.

Yet with Labor's poor showing, there was growing speculation that the party would try to depose Mitzna, the mayor of Haifa, who took the helm of Labor only two months ago.

Yossi Sarid, leader of Meretz, another party associated with peace moves toward the Palestinians, took a pre-emptive step and resigned after his party's poor showing, dropping to six seats from 10 in the outgoing parliament.

Many Palestinians said they feared a worsening of the Mideast crisis during a second Sharon term. "You have Sharon in a new government, a war against Iraq imminent, the disappearance of the peace process, all these factors," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, adding that nonetheless the Palestinians respected Israel's democratic choice.

During the vote, the Israeli military imposed stringent travel bans in the Palestinian areas, including curfews that confined hundreds of thousands of West Bank residents to their homes. Sharon has presided over major military offensives against suspected militants, and in June troops reoccupied nearly all West Bank population centers.

Another big winner of the election was Shinui, which successfully appealed to disaffected middle-class voters rebelling against what they perceive as religious coercion by ultra-Orthodox Jewish political parties and an unfair tax burden.

Further complicating coalition scenarios, Lapid insisted he'd join only a coalition with Likud and Labor, without religious parties. For Sharon, setting up a secular government would mean breaking a strategic alliance with Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party representing Jews whose families originated in Arabic-speaking countries.

The vote was Israel's fourth national election in seven years, and only 68.5 percent of the 4.7 million-strong electorate cast ballots, the lowest-ever participation in a Knesset election.

Voter turnout was just 10 percent in the first three hours, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, the lowest turnout ever since the founding of the state of Israel. The usual turnout is 60 to 80 percent, but many Israelis are frustrated over their choices.

The campaign failed to ignite excitement, both because Sharon's victory was considered inevitable and because Israelis have despaired of a quick fix to the bloody and debilitating conflict.

"I hope he (Sharon) will continue the same way he started. The election was just a pause. He will continue to fight against terror," said Oren Mahlab, 32, a Likud activist.

Sharon was elected several months after fighting erupted, in a landslide over Labor's Ehud Barak, who had offered the Palestinians a state in Gaza and more than 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Negotiations fell apart over the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem.

Sharon rescinded Barak's offers and has boycotted Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, convincing the U.S. administration he should be replaced. The Palestinian Authority and its economy have been largely crushed, and Israel too has suffered: tourism collapsed, the economy contracted, inflation and unemployment shot up.

"Visitors may wonder how after two such bitter years people prefer Sharon," wrote commentator Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronot. "When things are tough, people stick to the familiar."

Labor was undermined by the deep antipathy of two key groups: among Sephardim, the half of Israel's Jews with Middle Eastern roots, many still hate Labor for their treatment in the 1950s, when Labor-led governments were seen as favoring European Jews with subsidies and jobs; and among the 1 million Russian immigrants, the left is widely associated with communism.