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Israeli soldiers vote two days before election proper

But that does not stop some leading dailies from trying to persuade the electorate to vote for an alternative, either by using forceful arguments or plain old sarcasm.

Nowhere is the sarcasm more blatant than in the leftist Ha'aretz, whose leading commentator Yoel Marcus tells Israelis: "If you're happy and you know it, vote Sharon."

"He's a cutie pie. He has a sense of humour. He radiates confidence. He communicates with outer space. He runs his government with a firm hand. He visits the wounded. He goes to weddings and funerals. A genuine King of Israel.

If you feel that after 700 Israelis have died and 1,600 have been injured, your life has improved immeasurably - then Sharon is your man Ha'aretz

"If your quality of life and personal security have improved, go ahead and do it: Vote Sharon. For the sake of your children, who'll be killed as they safeguard outposts and settlements which have no reason to exist, politically or militarily."

"If you want a prime minister who talks about a Palestinian state but is slowly occupying it; if you want to know what happened to those painful concessions, of which all that remain are the pain of bereavement and the fear of the next attack; if you feel that after 700 Israelis have died and 1,600 have been injured, your life has improved immeasurably - then Sharon is your man."

Mr Marcus then gets serious, forecasting that the economy is set to deteriorate, the poor will get poorer, and unemployment will rise, together with taxes to pay for the ongoing war.

Distant hope

"Global ostracism, expressed in boycotts, denunciation and flourishing anti-Semitism, will become more widespread. But Sharon is brimming with self-confidence, convinced that he has an answer for everything. These problems are nothing for a man like him, who has even managed to tame Netanyahu. Who, if not Sharon, is cut out to lead this country?"

Sharon is tipped to win

But there is some hope he says. "Labour, if it gets a grip on itself and shapes up in the opposition, will return to power one day. Sharon's self-destruct mechanism never fails."

Labour's plight is the concern of another Ha'aretz commentator. Gideon Samet fears the party is facing "some kind of extinction".

"Why is the Labour Party failing so pathetically? The majority is ready for a change, but only if the Likud, the anti-movement party, leads it."

Only when Palestinians themselves, either with help or without, have opted for the path of open, accountable government can Israel's future ever be secured. This is what Sharansky understands and what Sharon evidently does not Jerusalem Post

Mr Samet describes the current situation as "terrible", but goes on to say "the defeat of the Labour Party is also the defeat of the belief that it is at all possible to change the situation. This is an anxious, entrenching, fatalist and suicidal vote."

Praying for miracles

The conservative Jerusalem Post says the only factor worrying Likud is "complacency". It notes that Labour Party leader Amram Mitzna "prays for miracle at the Wailing Wall".

For the Post, the choice is clear: "Vote Sharansky", it urges in an editorial.

"If the names of only two parties were to appear on Tuesday's ballot, our choice would be clear. Despite its faults, which are both serious and unsettling, the Likud Party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is infinitely preferable to a Labour Party led by Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna.

"Not too long ago, Israel's Labour Party was proud and dominant. Today it is neither. Labour clings ever tighter to the perilous notion that the only way Israel can make peace is to sue for it. Labour's journey to the periphery of Israeli politics mirrors its hypnotic obedience to folly."

The Post argues that "one man stands out above the rest. He is Natan Sharansky and his party, Yisrael B'Aliya. We support Sharansky not just because his stand against tyranny and for freedom helped unhinge the foundations of a totalitarian superpower.

"We are attracted to Sharansky, because we believe he is the only candidate who sees clearly what kind of state Israel can become and how to take us there."

A hurting and worn out society continues to wait for the mysterious Godot, for the morning after the next elections Yedi'ot Aharonot

Sharansky believes in both economic and political freedom, not only for Israelis but Palestinians too, says the Post.

"Only when Palestinians themselves, either with help or without, have opted for the path of open, accountable government can Israel's future ever be secured. This is what Sharansky understands and what Sharon evidently does not."

Waiting for Godot

For Ya'el Gewirtz, writing in the top circulation, centrist Yedi'ot Aharonot, Israelis will still be "Waiting for Godot" on Wednesday.

"Israel is voting for a gray morning. Judging by the breakdown of votes in the polls, the day after will put us in the same dusty shop, not in a shining new supermarket."

"A hurting and worn out society continues to wait for the mysterious Godot, for the morning after the next elections."

Another Yediot columnist, Eytan Haber, sets out a number of possible coalition scenarios facing the country after the elections, in a piece headlined "Don't Waste Your Despair, You'll Need It".

He says that if Likud chooses to align solely with the other right-wing parties, Washington could well pull the plug on promised aid packages.

"Whichever option materialises, it will be a tough year in terms of security,economy, and politics."

Right-wing newspapers gave little coverage to the elections on Sunday, leading some observers to conclude they preferred to concentrate on other issues, assuming the result was a foregone conclusion.

Voters of No Confidence
Young Israelis Dispirited, Skeptical as Election Nears

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 27, 2003; Page A01

JERUSALEM -- Just over two years ago, at the turn of a promising new century, Danny Shraga was part of Israel's burgeoning high-technology boom and was giddily anticipating the birth of his first child. Today, the 31-year-old father of two baby girls is between jobs in a nation frayed by war and the worst economic crisis since the creation of the Jewish state.

"Things are very depressing," said Shraga, a resident of Kiryat Gat in central Israel. "Right now it's like we're in a bottomless pit, at a dead end."

In a nation where polls show deepening political schisms and despair, no group in Israel is facing Tuesday's election with greater cynicism and distrust than the generation that launched careers in the heady 1990s, reveling in the tranquillity that followed the Oslo accords and the prosperity that promised to catapult Israel into the global economic mainstream.

"There is no security, the economy has toppled and the whole situation in this country is a total disaster," said Dorit Finkel, 30, a dental technology student and single mother. "People have lost faith. They don't have faith in the restoration of security, or that the economy will be rebuilt, or that voting can affect that at all."

After 28 months of clashes with Palestinians and scores of suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 700 Israelis and almost 1,800 Palestinians, young voters say they are so disillusioned that they do not believe any of the candidates can deliver peace. This disenchantment has been particularly devastating to the Labor Party's Amram Mitzna, a former general who has staked his candidacy on pledges to reopen negotiations with the Palestinians and end their uprising against continuing occupation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by pulling Israelis out of most of the occupied areas.

Even so, candidates have gone out of their way to seek support among young voters despite the fact that, as elsewhere, they vote in smaller percentages than older voters. Mitzna recently did a campaign pub crawl, bouncing from bar to bar, shouting his platform over pulsing music. The Likud Party candidate, incumbent Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has concentrated his appearances at military bases, where his youth support is strongest among young soldiers performing compulsory service, who traditionally vote in large numbers at the urging of commanding officers.

Israeli polls uniformly show Sharon's Likud winning the most seats in parliament, although not a majority. But under the Israeli system, in which parties vie for parliament seats rather than direct votes for a prime minister, relatively small blocs of votes can win crucial positions. As a result, the seats held by minor parties will be critical to the coalition government that the winning party will be forced to assemble, according to many political analysts.

Those smaller parties, which appeal to the pocketbook and the social issues that many young voters say interest them, may be the greatest beneficiaries of the civilian youth vote. The main ones are: Shinui, which advocates greater secularism and cutting government benefits to religious Jews; the Green Leaf Party, which espouses legalization of marijuana and focuses on social issues; and the Meretz Party, which is pro-peace and pushes social reforms.

"My voice can affect whether or not a party will be represented in the next government," said Yoav Atad, 19, who is fulfilling his compulsory service in the military. "What's the difference if I vote for a large party? They will be elected anyway and my voice will not be heard. If I vote for Green Leaf, this time at least, I know my vote will have meaning."

But regardless of which party young voters say will win their support, a pervasive gloom has enveloped this newest generation of voters. Many of those interviewed said they see no prospects for peace or economic improvement. They said their votes for smaller parties should be viewed as a protest against the parties that traditionally have held power in Israel.

"If you were a young person coming of age in the '90s, a lot of hopes have been shattered," said Sammy Smooha, a sociology professor at the University of Haifa. "The peace process stopped, you have economic recession, then you have the intifada."

Asked which candidate would be most likely to help bring peace to Israel, Yochai Davidoff, a 22-year-old waiter in a Jerusalem hotel and a Green Leaf Party supporter, was quick to reply, "Nobody can."

"I don't believe peace can be achieved -- a real, honorable, genuine peace," Davidoff said after settling into his seat on a bus plastered with an enormous "Likud-Sharon" advertisement. "It's depressing really, but peace seems like a dream."

His personal prospects for success, he complained, seem just as ephemeral.

"My job stinks," said Davidoff, headphones draped around his neck. "I don't want to be working as a waiter. I am really a musician, a singer."

The Palestinian uprising, or intifada, he said, has made it impossible to find a job in the entertainment field. "For now, I'm biding my time, working as a waiter to pay the bills. I don't think I can realize my dreams for the future in Israel with the way things are. It's very frustrating."

"Nobody talks about peace anymore," said Izzy Rotter, 25, who lost his job as manager of a youth hostel when the uprising broke out in the fall of 2000, killing tourism. "They use the word 'quiet.' I've been wounded in a terror attack and had two kids die in my arms on December 1st, 2001, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Ben Yehuda Street."

Rotter, who has moved back in with his parents and returned to college since losing his job, added: "Another friend of mine was shot dead in a terrorist attack. I am more right-wing since the intifada began, but I still believe that there is a middle path."

That has led Rotter to support the Shinui Party, he said. "They don't live in a dream where you wake up and all of a sudden the Arabs love you. Nor do they live in the dream of a complete Jewish state with biblical borders."

The combination of a devastated economy and a war with no end in sight is also making it difficult for young people to plan their futures.

Siril Nakas, 21, sipping a cup of coffee with friends at a Jerusalem coffee shop, finishes his military service with the army in six weeks. He plans to vote for the Likud Party. Even so, he said, he finds it difficult to decide what to study when he leaves the military.

"I have to find a trade that will be secure, and it's very hard. People don't go out, they don't buy things, they're scared. . . . You cannot open a business now in Jerusalem -- it will only go under. I hope I find something to learn."

Marina Fouxman, 21, an architecture student who immigrated to Israel from Russia in 1999, said she will not vote.

"No party, not even a small one, represents me," Fouxman said. "When I hear the word Israel, I think about the past. The words 'Israel' and 'future' are not words that naturally go together in my head. We have to bring new ideas here, and we don't have any."

As she stood at a bus stop on her way to classes, Fouxman assessed her own future: "I'll stay here and graduate. I'll begin to live my life -- if I don't die in a terror attack."      washingtonpost.com

Violence has scared off foreign tourists

The Central Bureau of Statistics said the number of visitors to Israel fell to 862,300 in 2002, down 29% on 2001 and the lowest number since 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon.

About 2 million people a year visited Israel throughout the 1990s, hitting a record of 2.4 million in 2000.

But the tourist industry, one of the pillars of Israel's economy, went into decline at the end of 2000 after the start of the second Palestinian Intifada.

About 2,500 Palestinians and Israelis have died in the uprising.

Flights cut

Visitor numbers have also been affected by US carriers - including Delta and American Airlines - which have cut flights and capacity to Israel.

Almost a quarter of all visitors came from the US, Israel's main ally and financial supporter.

Of the 862,300 visitors in 2002, about 779,000 arrived by air.

Israel's economy plunged into recession in early 2001, contracting by 0.9% that year, and shrinking again by 1.0% in 2002.

Unemployment stands at 10.5%.

But while tourists stayed away from Israel, figures from the World Tourism Organisation indicated a surge in the popularity of the Middle East in general as a tourism destination.

The 139-country body said that with international tourist arrivals growing 3.1% globally, the Middle East saw the world's biggest climb in popularity with 10.6% more visitors in 2002 than in the previous year.

Breakdown in relations

The economy is commonly described as being in its worst recession in 50 years.

Economists in Israel attribute much of the trouble to the effects of the breakdown in relations with the Palestinians.

But Israel has not escaped the global economic downturn, with its formerly high-flying hi-tech industry particularly hard hit.

Many analysts expect national economic output to drop in 2003 for the third consecutive year and say a sustained up-turn is unlikely until a settlement is reached with the Palestinians.