OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 18 August — Israelis are losing faith in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s ability to end nearly 11 months of conflict with the Palestinians, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.
The Gallup poll for the Maariv newspaper showed 70 percent of respondents did not believe the right-wing former general, dubbed “Mr. Security” by his supporters, would succeed in halting Palestinian intifada, up 29 points from the previous survey.
Sharon scored a landslide election victory over Labor Party incumbent Ehud Barak in February on a promise to restore security to Israelis. But yesterday’s poll showed 53 percent of the 593 Israelis polled were unhappy with his efforts to keep his security promise, a 12-point rise from the previous poll. His satisfaction rating dropped 10 points to 49 percent.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said Israelis were increasingly sure military means could not produce security. “The Israeli public has started to realize that a military solution is impossible and that their security will not be achieved by suppressing another people,” he told Reuters.
At the United Nations, the Palestinians launched another quest for foreign action after Israel seized Palestinian offices in and around Jerusalem and briefly sent tanks into the West Bank town of Jenin.
The 15-member Security Council scheduled an open meeting for Monday for UN members to express their views as requested by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. Palestinians hope the debate will lead to a formal resolution.
Egypt said after talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell that it had put ideas about Middle East peace to the United States, and that it might be able to announce more details in two days.
Osama El-Baz, political adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said he also had assurances the United States would be active in Middle East peacemaking. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Sharon in a telephone call yesterday that Israel and Palestinians needed to resume peace talks to prevent more Middle East bloodshed. Six hundred and eighty people have been killed since September, including more than 500 Palestinians and about 150 Israelis.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said Israeli troops shot and wounded 14 youths in stone-throwing clashes. The Israeli army said an explosive device went off without causing damage close to the settlement of Gilo, which Israel calls a Jerusalem neighborhood. Witnesses reported stone throwing at Israeli troops near Ramallah and Bethlehem in the West Bank.
