Parliamentary elections were held in Israel last week, and at Brandeis, a campus with more of an eye on the Middle East than most other academic institutions, the general consensus toward the results is not one of delight. Ariel Sharon and his conservative Likud party had an excellent day at the polls, winning 38 of the 120 seats in the 16th Knesset (Israel's Parliament). Amram Mitzna and the Labor party, considered the faction with the greatest chance of defeating Sharon, finished with 19 seats. At Brandeis, reactions are mixed, but it is clear that many are displeased with the performance of the Sharon administration.While the proclaimed goal of any potential Israeli government will be to put an end to the violence that has plagued the nation for much of the past three years, Judah Ariel '04 of Students for Peace in Israel and Palestine (SPIP) believes that Sharon has proved incapable of making peace. "Sharon's plan seems to give power to the extremists on the Palestinian side," Ariel said. "Different students supported different candidates ... (but) not Sharon, he's been a disaster." He added that his organization took no specific position in the elections.

In the mock election held simultaneously with the real election, left-leaning candidates soundly defeated the right, and in Israel, Mitzna has vowed that his party will sit out of any new government that Sharon creates. "We will be there as a reminder that there is an alternative, that there is another way," Mitzna said on CNN. Sharon retort to this proposition was a call for national unity government.

With the spectre of war in the region, many students stressed that peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories is growing more urgent than ever. And, tangled in
this crisis is the United States, already with a full plate of foreign affairs. Rachel Baum of Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC) said that regardless of whom leads Israel, the United States must be the proponent of a peace plan through democracy. "Our support is through the help of the US. Despite the current crisis, the democratic process still exists. Democracy is the proper way to peace," she said.

According to Baum, BIPAC is politically charged, working to promote the bond between the United States and Israel. She said the organization places the burden of resolving the decades-old conflict on the shoulders of George W. Bush. So far, as reported by a CNN article, Bush has only stated the necessity of an independent Palestine. Sharon agreed with this sentiment, but his proposal for a Palestinian state has been repeatedly rejected by the Palestinian Authority. According to the article, Ariel said "the only way to peace is talks and two states with '67 borders." These borders dictate that the designated areas of Gaza and the West Bank be in Palestinian hands. Although he expressed his problems with Prime Minister Sharon, Ariel still described Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat "like any petty, corrupt third world dictator."

University President Jehuda Reinharz said he believes that the new Knesset will strive for peace in the Middle East. "His age - mid-70s - he is thinking about his legacy. The only possible legacy of any importance is a legacy of peace, and I believe he will strive to achieve that goal." On the elections, Reinharz commented that he is "not fully happy with the platform of any of the parties, but the reality is that Ariel Sharon is the prime minister."

Conservative Israeli politics are not without support at Brandeis though. During the mock elections held last week, Likud and other right-wing parties such as the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, drew support from students, many of those affiliated with Zionist groups such as ZaHaV. Ari Stein of ZaHaV says that support for Sharon is drawn from the need for security in the wake of terrorism. "The left in Israel had failed at making peace and the Israeli people were looking for someone who could give them a little security. The policy of no negotiation under terror was the right choice. Negotiation under terror only shows terrorists that terrorism works," Stein commented.

He added, "I believe in Sharon himself, because he is a man who has spent his life fighting wars and understands the need for there to finally be peace, but his first priority is to the security of the Israeli people." Among his organization, Stein said "There is a common understanding that Sharon is the man who will bring the right kind of peace." Still, the campus went primarily liberal, as forty-two percent of the votes went to Labor (15 percent) and Meretz (27 percent), a party akin to the Greens in the United States. Likud garnered 22 percent of votes. (Results courtesy of Israelvotes.com)

Through all the various issues facing Israel, both the real and mock elections were driven by each party's proposal to end the constant violence. While Reinharz is optimistic, the rest of Brandeis expressed mixed predictions of the possibly of an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians in the near future. "Sharon and the Palestinians understand each other. Whether they like one another, both sides understand that they need to deal with reality. The reality is that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians can prosper without the other," Reinharz added.

The election is over, and Sharon now has roughly one month to form a new government. According to the New York Times, if Mitzna and the Labor party follow through on their promise to refrain from joining the next Knesset, it is a certainty that the Israeli government will be almost entirely right-wing.

Palestinian elections were to be held earlier in January, but the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)-imposed lock down on the West Bank and Gaza led the Palestinian Authority to postpone them indefinitely. So, for the time being, whatever form the Israeli government takes, it must deal with the continued Palestinian leadership of Yassir Arafat, and a government which for the past year, the Bush administration has openly condemned.