World Newspaper and magazine Clippings

They choose between only two candidates, men who have built their reputation on opposite sites of the peacemaking spectrum（曙光, 光谱）.

Current Prime Minister Ehud Barak faces an overwhelming wave of discontent（不满）and a potentially humiliating defeat after insisting on a policy of making deepening concessions（有妥协性的, 让步的, 让步性的）despite continuing Palestinian violence.

The current Palestinian unrest began Sept. 28, when Barak's opponent, Ariel Sharon, visited a disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Muslims and Jews, leaving 385 people dead — mostly Palestinians.

In contrast, Sharon, has leaped ahead of Barak by almost 20 points by rejecting Barak's peace proposals, and by pledging to engage in peace talks only after calm is restored（修补者, 修建者）.

Polls on Monday gave Barak around 55 percent of the vote and 35 percent for Barak. Roughly（概略地, 粗糙地）10 percent were undecided.

Barak has warned that Sharon would plunge（使投入, 使插入, 使陷入）Israel into war with its neighbors, but many voters, weary after months of the Palestinian uprising, were either apathetic（缺乏兴趣的, 缺乏感情的, 无动于衷的）or swayed by Sharon's mantra of "peace with security."

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time and are scheduled to close at 10 p.m., when both major TV stations can announce exit poll results.

Tight Security

Israeli police and security forces were on high alert today.

In a routine action, Palestinians were banned from entering Israel, after Islamic militants had threatened bomb attacks in Tel Aviv, and one of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's lieutenants in the West Bank, promised a "day of rage," with large-scale demonstrations against Israel.

"The message we want to send to the Israeli society with the demonstrations is that the uprising will continue, regardless of who the prime minister of Israel is," Marwan Barghouti said Monday.

Police reinforcements were also sent into Arab communities after the police commissioner said he feared some Israeli Arabs could try to prevent voters from casting ballots（投票, 票数）.

Israeli Arabs are a traditional support base for leftist and centrist（中间派议员, 中立派议员）candidates, but many of them said they would sit out this election or cast blank ballots.

They blame Barak's government for the death of 13 Israeli Arabs in October, when police opened fire on rioters（暴动的, 骚乱的, 狂欢的）.

On Monday, Barak admitted fault for the deaths. "As the prime minister, I take responsibility for those events and request once again to express my sorrow for their deaths," he said in a statement.

The loss of the Arab vote is in part to blame for the decline in Barak's support. Arab Israelis make up about 12.5 percent of the electorate.

Looking to the Future

Barak waged a desperate campaign to the end. On Monday, he visited with campaign workers distributing bumper along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

He also published a direct appeal to the voters on the front page of the Yediot Ahronot, daily, as did Sharon.

Barak said: "We are being called to decide whether between us and peace there is another blood-filled war."

Sharon said he will "not conduct negotiations under fire and will not give rewards for violence."

The Palestinian Authority has said it will work with any Israeli prime minister and it remains committed to peace talks.

However, some Palestinian officials have portended doom for the peace process if Sharon wins. "We have to prepare for the worst," said negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo. "I think that [Sharon] will try to impose further facts on the ground. This will lead to explosions and confrontations."

The United States said Monday it has a "special relationship" with Israel and is ready to work with whoever wins today's prime ministerial election.

"Israel is a democracy, we have a special relationship with Israel and we can work with whomever they choose as their leader," said Mary Ellen Countryman, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.

Shimon Peres, elder statesman of the left-wing Labor Party, said his fellow doves might consider aligning（结盟） themselves with Sharon if he wins, but only if Sharon is open to compromise with the Palestinians.

From The Economist print edition