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Sharon
(L) beat Netanyahu (R) by 15 percentage points
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, November 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been re-elected as head of the
right-wing Likud Party, beating his main rival Foreign Secretary
Benjamin Netanyahu by 15 percentage points, according to official
results released early Friday, November 29.
Sharon
won 55.8 percent of the party members' votes against 40.8 percent for
Netanyahu and 3.4 percent for extreme-right candidate Moshe Feiglin,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Only
46 percent of Likud's 305,000 members bothered to vote in Thursday's
party primary election.
The
voting took place against the backdrop of anti-Israeli attacks in
Kenya which killed 12 people including three Israelis.
After
the vote Sharon vowed to avenge the deaths and called on Likud members
to redouble their efforts to win the legislative elections to be held
in January 2003.
Several
exit polls broadcast as Likud's 678 ballot boxes closed Thursday
evening, November 28, had Sharon comfortably re-elected as the Likud
leader beating Foreign Minister Netanyahu by a margin of at least 17
percentage points.
The
official results were not due to be published until early Friday, but
Netanyahu, acknowledging defeat, called for his party to unite behind
Sharon.
"We
have to unite behind Ariel Sharon so we can eradicate 'terrorism' at
the head of the next government," he said.
Sharon
himself gave a muted victory speech, saying: "After a day like
today, it’s difficult for me to say I'm excited."
With
only two hours to go until the polls closed, voter turnout was
noticeably low, with only 30 percent showing up to vote following the
earlier shooting attack on a polling station.
Six
Israelis, including a Likud central committee member were killed when
Palestinian resistance activists sprayed automatic gunfire and hurled
grenades at a polling station in the northern town of Beit Shean. Two
of the activists were also shot dead by police.
The
operation was claimed by the armed offshoot of the resistance Fatah
movement, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and was condemned by the
Palestinian leadership which issued a statement extending condolences
to the families of the victims.
Meanwhile,
an Israeli military plane carrying the bodies of the three Israelis
killed in Thursday's bombing in Kenya, left Mombasa airport early
Friday, Israel public radio reported.
Also
on the flight were six of those lightly wounded in the attack, and the
families of the dead, the radio said.
Another
six injured Israelis were still being treated in hospital in Mombasa,
while the remaining Israeli tourists were waiting at the airport to be
taken back to Israel.
Fifteen
people died in the deadly attack in which a vehicle burst through a
barrier around the Paradise Mombasa hotel on the Indian Ocean coast
and rammed through the front entrance, exploding in the lobby.
A
third suspect has been arrested over the car bombing, police spokesman
King'ori Mwangi said Friday.
"The
three, all foreigners of Arab origin, are being held for
questioning," King'ori told AFP by telephone.
Early
Friday morning, a score of Israeli investigators arrived at the large
hotel complex, as did three U.S. officials who proceeded to photograph
the cordoned-off compound and a Kenyan team which pored over the
debris.
Meanwhile,
a charter plane of Israel's Arkia airlines carrying 261 passengers
came under attack from two missiles as it took off from Mombasa. They
narrowly missed and the plane arrived safely in Israel.
