JERUSALEM (AP):
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, the top contender to lead the battered Likud Party, denounced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday as a 'dictator,' and accused him of abandoning the party's true path.
Sharon quit the party on Monday to form a new list after concluding that Likud rebels opposed to his Gaza Strip withdrawal would try to block further peace moves. Netanyahu, a former prime minister, hopes to replace Sharon as Likud chief, and to use the position to regain his old job.
ONE-MAN-RULE
Sharon, he said, is a leader who pursued a "one-man-rule, who apparently doesn't recognise democracy, and is setting up a party of puppets.
"What does it matter whether the dictator has this type of smile, or that type of sense of humour?" Netanyahu told Army Radio. "It all leads to tyranny."
Netanyahu initially supported the pullout plan, which enjoyed widespread public support, but turned against it shortly before it was carried out. Polls published yesterday showed Likud's strength in parliament shrinking dramatically in upcoming elections.
