Special Bulletin, 9 p.m., Israel Election Night

Summary and Analysis

Already at 9 p.m. V.O.P. quoted Danish reports that Ariel Sharon had won the Israeli elections, but it noted that a final result would come with the 10 p.m. Israeli television exit polls. V.O.P. said most recent polls showed a gap of 20-percent for Sharon over Barak.

V.O.P. noted that there was a strong boycott of the elections by Arab voters, with most Arab communities showing less than one percent turn-out by six thirty p.m., while overall voting at that time had reached 58 percent.

V.O.P. broadcast warnings by West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti that the Intifada would continue and even intensify.

“Sharon is the last bullet in the Israeli ammunition clip,” asserted Barghouti. He said that israelis would discover that Sharon could not bring them security and that he would be the biggest failure in their history. The only way to work with Sharon, Fatah Secretary Barghouti said, was to continue and escalate the Intifada.

V.O.P. repeated Yasser Abd-Rabbo’s comments that a Sharon victory represented a victory for the Fascist and extremist Right in Israel.

Radio Analysis and Excerpts

Summary and Analysis

V.O.P. escalated its verbal pummeling of Ariel Sharon Tuesday, but stopped just short of a direct endorsement of Ehud Barak. V.O.P. basically said “Sharon is an evil monster”, pronouncing him a racist and Fascist as well as a mass murderer, even as it largely ignored the call by many Israeli Arab politicians and Islamic leaders for a boycott or a blank ballot.

During V.O.P.’s morning news shows, it portrayed Sharon as someone who continued to flout the law in Israel and Arab sensibilities, asserting that Sharon was planning to make an illegal campaign appearance in the “colony of Gilo” in Jerusalem (i.e. the Jerusalem neighborhood that had been targeted by Palestinian snipers for several weeks).

The Palestinian Authority Minister of Information, Yasser Abd-Rabbo, was the featured 8:05 a.m. Tuesday morning interview, and he said that Sharon represented the “extremist right wing” in Israel and its “fascist” approach to the use of power.

In its news summaries, V.O.P. said “Israeli voters are choosing between the head of the Labor party, Ehud Barak, and the extremist, right-winger, the leader of the Likud party, Ariel Sharon.” Barak was pictured as indecisive and a sure loser, while Sharon was depicted as a fascistic mass murderer. There was no mention in the headlines of the option of boycotting the elections or casting a blank ballot.

The tone of programming is reflected by anchorman Samir Interr’s Monday morning political profile summation of Sharon:

“Ariel Sharon has a history spattered with blood and massacres.”

At the same time, V.O.P. did not hide its disappointment with Barak, calling him inconsistent and indecisive, and V.O.P. gave a lot of air time to coverage of what it called continuing Israeli aggression.

Elsewhere V.O.P. gave unusually great prominence to the demands of Libyan leader Muamar Qadhafi that sanctions be lifted against his country and that international figures such as Nelson Mandela review the Lockerbie verdict.

At the same time, V.O.P. continues to champion the cause of Saddam Hussein’s emergence from isolation and his forging of new economic and political ties.

Second Special Bulletin, 11 p.m.

Summary and Analysis

In its 11 p.m. broadcast, The Voice of Palestine referred to the election victory by “the extremist Likud leader Ariel Sharon.” However, V.O.P. featured comments by PA President Yasser Arafat that he would respect the election results in Israel.

V.O.P. also removed the caustic anti-Sharon comments of Yasser Abd-Rabbo (Sharon as fascist) and Marwan Barghouti (escalating intifada).

Arafat’s spokesman Nabil Abu-Irdeineh said that the Palestinian Authority would be willing to work with the new government provided it worked on the peace process linked to “international legitimacy” (i.e. UN resolutions) and the principle of “land for peace.”

Still, the tone of the broadcast was markedly anti-Sharon.

“Israeli television predicts a 19-point advantage for the extremist Likud candidate Ariel Sharon over his rival Barak,” the program began.

“We respect the choice of the Israeli people and will work for the continuation of the peace process,” V.O.P. quoted Arafat.

“We will work with any Israeli prime minister, but what interests us is the commitment to the peace process,” said Abu-Irdenieh in a prepared statement.

Abu-Irdeineh hinted strongly that the PA expects Sharon to abide by understandings reached with Barak and other Israeli leaders. Abu-Irdeineh said the agreements were between the PLO and the Israeli government. He further said that peace, security and regional stability were conditional on the Palestinians getting an independent state with complete sovereignty and independence including holy Jerusalem.

V.O.P. noted that Sharon had invited Barak to join a unity government.

V.O.P. also reported that President George Bush was set to call and congratulate Sharon, but that Denmark had announced its disappointment with the victory of “the extremist Sharon” and what effect this might have on the peace process.

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