The election victory of the Likud, which won thirty-eight seats to Labour’s nineteen, was a resounding vote of confidence in Ariel Sharon and his handling of the al-Aqsa Intifada. His opponent, Amram Mitzna, the former mayor of Haifa, put forward a dovish platform which featured a willingness to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank and to engage in negotiations with Arafat. In the midst of an ongoing campaign of suicide bombing, such an approach did not resonate with the Israeli voter and marked the diminution of Labour’s centrality in the political arena – even though Mitzna criticised Sharon for not moving faster to construct a security barrier.