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| ISRAEL'S HISTORIC VOTE | |
 May 28, 1996 
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As Israelis prepare to go to select their next prime minister tomorrow, special correspondent Charles Krause interviews several voters about the political forces that will shape their vote. |
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MR. LEHRER: Now a preview of tomorrow's elections in Israel from Charles Krause who is there. RAFAEL REISER: I think that this election more than elections before will really shape the destiny of this country for many years to come. When I come to vote really I think more of my son who is 10 years old rather than myself or my parents or my peers. It is, it is very much a historic way that Israel is going to decide whether it wants reconciliation or whether it wants stalemate and let's see how things will develop in 10 years to come. MR. KRAUSE: Rabbi Ruben Kruger told us he'll vote for Netanyahu. RABBI RUBEN KRUGER: This is a fateful moment in Jewish history. It's a fateful moment in the history of the state of Israel. And it's a question on which honest men can disagree. We're hopeful that the results will be in the best interest of peace and the best interest of the Jewish people. ASHER ARIAN, Haifa University: I disagree with my friend, Jossi Alpher, yes. MR. KRAUSE: Asher Arian is a political science professor at Haifa University and a leading expert on Israeli elections. He says that a Netanyahu victory will not radically alter the momentum for peace. ASHER ARIAN: I don't know what he would do, but I know what constraints he would operate under. He would work under the constraints of enormous American, European, international pressure. He would work under the constraints of treaties with Arab countries which are really predicated on a continuation of finding a modus vivendi with the Palestinians. I don't think he can turn back the clock. I don't think it's in his character to turn back the clock.
MR. KRAUSE: Whatever Netanyahu might ultimately do, a series of deadly suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian terrorists last February and March allowed him to make the trade-offs between peace and security the defining issue of the campaign. Netanyahu's TV spots accuse Peres of gambling with Israel's security--and with its future--by trusting Arafat and Syria's President Assad. Produced by Netanyahu's U.S. media consultants, the spots are hard hitting and controversial. In his TV spots, the 72 year old prime minister is surrounded by adoring young people, and the world leaders, especially President Clinton, who support the peace process Peres hopes to continue. To gauge the impact of the conflicting messages, we traveled to Netania, a coastal city about 20 miles North of Tel Aviv, that's said to be a microcosm of the whole of Israel. Like the rest of the country, tourism and high-tech computers are important industries here, and the economy is booming. New apartment buildings are spurting up everywhere, as are new industrial parks filled with names like Digital, Sony, and Motorola. At night, Independence Square in the heart of Netania becomes a focal point for social life and for political debate. WOMAN: We are finished, finished, if Peres-- MR. KRAUSE: What we found here, as elsewhere in Israel, was that peace and security are the only issues anyone seems to care about. It was near Independence Square that we met Rabbi Kruger and his sister, Martha, who's just immigrated to Israel from the United States. MR. KRAUSE: Why are you voting for Mr. Netanyahu? MR. KRAUSE: Why do you disagree? MARTHA KRUGER: Because I think it's important that the peace process continue. I think that it's, umm, important that all the work that Yitzhak Rabin did continue, and Peres is clearly the man to do that. MR. KRAUSE: Faina Zolotuvssky is a recent immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union. She explained why she thinks many of her fellow Russian immigrants will vote for Netanyahu. FAINA ZOLOTUVSSKY, Russian Immigrant: Because they are real afraid to have a Palestinian state here, and Shimon Peres, he want, he want to give most of Israel, he want to give to Arabs. Shimon Peres for Arabs. Bibi Netanyahu for Jewish people. MR. KRAUSE: Russian immigrants are considered to be a key voting bloc. And last night, Natan Sharansky was campaigning for his new Russian immigrants party in Netania. Sharansky is running for the Knesset and has deliberately not endorsed either candidate for prime minister. Most Russian Israelis, he says, are torn between the experience offered by Peres and Netanyahu's promises to do more to help recent immigrants. Israeli Arabs, who make up about 15 percent of Israel's population, are another key voting bloc. Peres needs their votes to win. But their support has been in question since last month's bombing of Lebanon. The Arab town of Tires, located about 15 minutes from Netania, there we found Kshow Ahmad passing out bumper stickers urging his fellow citizens to abstain when they go to the polls tomorrow. KSHOW AHMAD, Israeli Arab: (speaking through interpreter) I don't think Arabs will be any better off if Peres loses and Netanyahu becomes prime minister. But I want people to notice that nothing has been done to help the Israeli Arabs. MR. KRAUSE: But not far from the shop where he met Ahmad, Peres supporters have gathered at Tires' Labor Party headquarter. Their activist Khatimah Kasim told us she was confident most of Tire's 9,000 voters would turn out for Peres, although she didn't want to mention any specific numbers. MR. KRAUSE: Today's polls, the last before tomorrow's election, show Peres holding on to a slim 3 to 4 percent lead over Netanyahu. But that's within the margin of error, and Israel pollsters are cautioning that there could still be an upset, especially if there's another terrorist attack in Jerusalem or here in Tel Aviv before the polls close tomorrow night. Today on the eve of the election Israel's border with the West Bank and Gaza has been completely closed to all but Israeli citizens and Palestinian dignitaries. Elsewhere in Israel, some 26,000 policemen, soldiers, and civil guards have been mobilized to provide security at polling places. Police officials are calling it the largest, most complex, and complicated security operation in Israel's history. The heightened security was yet another sign of how important the outcome of tomorrow's election will be for all sides in the Middle East, a critical turning point that could still go either way. |
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CHARLES
KRAUSE: After a short but intense election campaign, Israel's nearly
4 million voters will go to the polls tomorrow to elect a new prime
minister and a new parliament. Israeli elections have always been important.
But the outcome of this year's vote will have global significance because
of its impact on the prospects for peace throughout the Middle East.
Some 21 parties are vying for 120 seats in Israel's parliament called
the Knesset. But it's the contest for prime minister that's captured
most of the attention. The incumbent, Labor Party leader and Nobel peace
prize winner Shimon Peres, faces a tough challenge from his more conservative
opponent--Likud Party candidate, Israel's former U.N. Ambassador, Benjamin
Netanyahu. Both candidates are fighting for the heart and soul of the
Israeli people because both sides understand that what's at stake tomorrow
is not just the composition of Israel's next government. The outcome
will also decide how far and how fast Israel's voters are willing to
let their next government go toward negotiating a comprehensive peace
agreement with Israel's Arab neighbors. Rafael Reiser will vote for
Peres.
MR.
KRAUSE: What Israel's voters will decide tomorrow is, in effect, what
risks they're willing to take for peace. Incumbent Prime Minister Peres
is the architect of the peace process that began three years ago in
Oslo. And if he wins tomorrow, he has promised to continue the peace
negotiations toward their ultimate conclusion, even if that means an
independent state for the Palestinians and a peace treaty with Syria
that could include Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Bibi
Netanyahu promises to slow down the peace process, pointing to a series
of terrorist bombings earlier this year as proof that neither the PLO's
Yasser Arafat, nor Syria's President Hafez Assad can be trusted. At
the beginning of the campaign, Netanyahu even said he'd refuse to meet
with Arafat. But as the campaign moved toward what's expected to be
a tight finish, both candidates tried to appeal to undecided voters
by blurring their differences, Netanyahu saying he's no less for peace
than Peres and Peres saying he's no less concerned about Israel's security
than Netanyahu. Still, despite changes of emphasis, Jossi Alpher of
the American Jewish Committee says there's no question in his mind that
differences remain.
JOSSI
ALPHER, American Jewish Community: Pres and Labor and the left and the
left of center remain committed essentially to continuing a territories
for peace approach in dealing with the Syrians and Palestinians--meaning
turning over to the Palestinians additional pieces of territory, even
contemplating the fact that a Palestinian state will emerge out of this--while
they wouldn't endorse it, they no longer reject it actively in their
platform, and all of this leading over time to improved security, not
only be because the two sides are cooperating but because they're learning
to trust one another ultimately and to live with one another. The right
and the right of center have always rejected a territories for peace
approach. Their traditional approach has been peace for peace, that
is, we're not going to give up the Golan, we're not going to give up
the West Bank, we're going back a few years, Gaza, we're going to offer
peace to the other side and they'll have to accept it.
RABBI
RUBEN KRUGER: I identify with the position that we need to make peace
but we have to do it in a manner which is--takes into account the realities
here in Israel, and I think his more cautious policy is something that
I could identify with.
KHATIMAH
KASIM, Israeli Arab: (speaking through interpreter) The people that
say they're going to vote blank vote out of anger. The Arabs have always
been supportive of the Labor Party, and therefore they're going to vote
Labor.