Israeli Opposition Party Picks New Leader

JERUSALEM —  Ariel Sharon, a legendary ex-general, former foreign minister and political hawk, decisively won the opposition Likud Party’s leadership election Thursday.

Sharon will try to lead the Likud out of the abyss created by moderate Ehud Barak’s crushing defeat of Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May elections. The party has scheduled another leadership vote in two years to pick a candidate for elections scheduled for 2003.

“Let’s rebuild the movement and prepare the Likud to win the next elections,” Sharon told followers chanting his nickname--”Arik, Arik”--at Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the results were announced early this morning.

With 53% of the party members’ vote, Sharon, 71, defeated former Finance Minister Meir Sheetrit and Ehud Olmert, the mayor of Jerusalem. Olmert got more than 24% of the vote and Sheetrit got more than 22%.

But only about a third of eligible voters appeared at the polls--a sign of the party’s continued despondency after its crushing defeat.

Sharon was the party’s interim Likud Party leader after Netanyahu stepped down after his election loss. Because of his age, Sharon is seen by some as a transitional leader.

But Sharon has given no indication that he plans to step aside, insisting that he will bring down Barak’s coalition and will run for prime minister in the next election.

The hard-line Likud opposes most compromise with the Palestinians for peace. Under Netanyahu, peace talks were largely stalemated. Barak has pledged to move forward quickly toward peace pacts with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.