Sharon, King of Israel

By Mohamed Ahmed, IOL Cairo correspondent

CAIRO, January 7 (IslamOnline) – The Israeli right-wing party, Likud, has decided to focus its election program on insisting that Jerusalem be the capital of Israel.

With Israeli elections coming up on January 28, the Likud’s website, mentioned that the Israeli prime minister and head of the Likud party, Ariel Sharon, is determined to apply the principles of the party he established in 1973, the most important being the claim that the Palestinian land is a "Jewish right" and that under a "democratic system" Jerusalem should be the united capital of Israel.

The site said that one of the most important  principle of the party is the necessity of  unifying Jews all over the world and expelling Palestinians.

It is important for Jews all over the world  to realize that immigration to Palestine is  a must, it is as important as Saturday’s prayers, the site said.

The site also mentioned that the party's program concentrates on guaranteeing the national and personal security, and that Israel's security is more important than any peace treaty.

The slogan of the party is “Sharon: The  king of Israel”. So far, it is the most well known slogan in the Israeli streets, in addition to many other slogans such as “Israel will come true with Sharon.”

The Likud program includes many other points such as creating the circumstances that would improve the economy, to absorb new immigrants and to improve the education level and to bind Zionism with Israeli history.

The program refuses negotiations with the Palestinians and stresses the importance of  expanding settlements especially in Al-Khalil (Hebron) and Jerusalem in addition to refusing the existence of intermediaries in the negotiations.

The program states that negotiations should be done according to  the existing situation not the previous references, and that if Israel occupied any additional territories in Palestine, the negotiations after that would be based on the new reality.

The program pointed out that they should struggle to form a national unified government, and to add the Labor Party to it if  Sharon succeeds. Meanwhile the program assured the necessity of implementing the Israeli laws on Golan heights.

Israeli writers and analysts think that Sharon’s  program is the most powerful among other programs. Bin Kssafet, a journalist in the Israeli Ma'ariv newspaper, is of the same opinion as he described the program's goals as the "clearest" despite the fact that it was described by some people as "extremist".

The journalist pointed out that Sharon is clear in his program unlike Metzna, the head of the Labor Party.

It is worth mentioning that the Likud’s principles are based on the Torah ideology which alleges that the Israelis have a right in Israel extending from the Nile to Euphrates. This is the ideology of all Likud leaders who are striving to make it a reality.