Word: likud
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...Schwartz Bar Mitzvah in the next hall thumps through the walls of the gaudy banquet room where Benjamin Netanyahu is making a pitch to send Yasser Arafat packing. "We have to throw him out," the former Israeli Prime Minister tells a gathering of 600 activists from his right-wing Likud Party. "Put him on a plane out of here." The Likud supporters, who have come from all over northern Israel to the port city of Haifa to hear him speak, rise to their feet and drown out the DJ with a rhythmic chant of Netanyahu's nickname...
These days it isn't just the Likud faithful who like Netanyahu's message. Israelis generally blame Palestinian leader Arafat for nearly 18 months of violence that has left 351 Israelis dead--as well as 1,195 Palestinians. At week's end, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, under U.S. pressure, seemed prepared to meet with high-level Palestinian representatives to discuss a possible cease-fire. Nonetheless, many Israelis still feel that Sharon has not delivered on his promise that he--and only he--could "bring security." One poll shows 73% are dissatisfied with Sharon's government; two right-wing ministers quit...
...hard hand. Even as the violence continued, many Israelis believed no one else was tough enough to handle the conflict. But in the past two months, as the bloodshed has worsened, Sharon's popularity has slipped; his personal approval rating is down to 35%. In the 3,000-member Likud central committee, his party's ruling body, the Prime Minister has the backing of just 630 members. Netanyahu has 1,680 in his pocket, according to an opinion poll published last week in an Israeli newspaper...
...Sharon loyalists of Netanyahu's plan. But the problem for the prime minister is that right now his own approval ratings are at an all-time low, and Netanyahu can count on a majority of Likud Party members to make him, rather than Sharon, their candidate in any new election...
...ultra-right and a center-left faction. Thus he cannot lean too far in either direction without risking that one of the coalition members will quit, bringing his government down. If that were to happen, new elections would follow. With Israelis in a hawkish mood, Sharon's right-wing Likud Party would almost surely make significant electoral gains. But Sharon might not be his party's candidate for Prime Minister. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told TIME last week that he intends to challenge Sharon at the next opportunity, has considerably more support within the Likud central committee...