Sharon's Gambit

Politics International Politics
1

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4458026.stm

[i]This morning, I met with the president of the state and asked his authority to dissolve the parliament and to go for new elections as soon as possible.

Thereafter, I began with my friends, who showed great courage and national responsibility, to start a new national liberal movement in Israel.

… After great hesitation, I decided to leave the Likud. The Likud, in its current format, cannot lead Israel to its aims, to its national aims.

I founded the Likud in order to serve a national idea and to give hope to the people of Israel. Unfortunately, this is no longer there.

… The new party we have created will serve the people of Israel for many years to come. It will be a new home for all Israelis that want to act with responsibility.

I call to all of you who believe in this to join us and go forward with us. We are moving forward. Our way will give Israel a new hope, a true hope for stable democracy.

…We will work to set the permanent border of the nation while insisting on the dismantling of terrorist groups.

Our approach will give Israel a real national responsibility, permanent, stable governance, economic prosperity, peace and tranquillity. This is what the Israeli people need today.

We have two tasks facing us. One is to lay the foundations for a peace settlement… I’m talking about the roadmap.

Disengagement provided us with a historic opportunity and I do not intend to allow anyone to miss this opportunity. [/i]

I am watching the Israeli elections with great interest. Abroad, Sharon is considered a hardline ideologue of Greater Israel. However, the reality is quite different. Although Sharon is the architect of settlements and of the Likud party, Sharon’s roots lie with the hawkish but pragmatic tradition of Israel’s Labor movement. He is a “Rabinist” at heart.

His commitment to settlements, as well as to Likud, was always about security: a means to achieve a thriving Israel, safe in a hostile Middle East for generations to come.

I hope he destroys the left and the far right in Israel in the coming election and serves another term. He is a statesman that will go down as one of Israels finest PMs :bravo:

2

Yeah. Go Sharon. He has gotten incredibly obese though. Ah the stresses of power.

Why are parliamentiary governments weaker in terms of stability?

3

Because it is a multi-party system :wink:

4

The Likud is a symbol of past intransigence and has always been a good example of how religious conservatism cripple political and especially, social progress…

Sharon should be commended, but it is a sad fact that there are many hardcore Zionists in Israel and around the world who shall not relent from clinging to the past and its glorious fables…

5

A titan from the right and a titan from the left. Any predictions on how Kadima will fare in the upcoming election?

[i]Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres will resign from the Labor Party, Israeli Channel 10 reported Tuesday night.

Peres’ office would neither confirm nor deny the report. Peres was in Spain and not available for comment Tuesday.

The Channel 10 report said that Peres will support the peace effort of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon but will not run for another term in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

Peres was recently defeated by Amir Peretz in elections for Labor Party chairman. Peres, 82, has been a pillar of the left-leaning party for decades.

During that time, he and Sharon have been political rivals but remained friends.

Last week, Sharon left the right-leaning Likud bloc – which he helped found in the 1970s – and announced the creation of a new party, Kadima, officially separating himself from those in Likud who protested his pullout of Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza.

Sharon’s move, which was widely expected, revolutionizes the Israeli political scene. Kadima, which means “forward,” is expected to end the longtime dominance of two parties in Israeli politics, Likud and the Labor.

cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/ … index.html[/i]

6

goddamnit chewy, can’t you use the damn quote function??

:wink:

no

:fume:

7

Sharon’s gambit seems to have paid off. It looks like his party will become the biggest in the Knesset based on current polling:

theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ … rnational/

[quote=“Globe and Mail”]Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres quit the Labor Party on Wednesday, leaving his political home of nearly six decades to campaign for Ariel Sharon’s new centrist party.

Under a reported deal worked out with Mr. Sharon, Mr. Peres would campaign for the prime minister without officially joining Kadima. If Mr. Sharon wins, Mr. Peres would receive a senior Cabinet post, either dealing with the peace process or with his pet project to develop Israel’s sparsely populated Negev desert and northern Galilee regions.

In a poll published Wednesday in the Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper, Kadima would win 34 seats in the 120-member parliament, up one from a survey last week.

Labor, Kadima’s most likely coalition partner, also gained a seat, for a new total of 27, according to the poll by the independent Dahaf Institute.

Likud, which dominated Israeli politics for three decades, dropped from 40 to 10 seats, making it the fourth-largest party, after the ultra-Orthodox Shas. The poll had an error margin of 4 percentage points.

“Sharon blitzed the Likud,” political analyst Hanan Crystal said on Israel Radio. “He took one-third of the party (legislators) and most Likud voters.”[/quote]

8

:yay:

I always get half way through and realize “He didn’t write this!”

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I always get half way through and realize “He didn’t write this!”[/quote]

You need to get some better glasses then :wink: My commentary, albeit very short, is in normal font, while the article is in italics. The post was made at 9:45pm last night after a 12-hour work shift :wink:

10

[quote=“Chewycorns”][quote=“jdsmith”]:yay:

I always get half way through and realize “He didn’t write this!”[/quote]

You need to get some better glasses then :wink: My commentary, albeit very short, is in normal font, while the article is in italics. The post was made at 9:45pm last night after a 12-hour work shift :wink:[/quote]

Do I have to take my “Yay!” back? :blush:

:wink:

11

I wonder how much Sharon’s health will impact the results in the upcoming election.

msnbc.msn.com/id/10519823/page/2/

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a mild stroke Sunday, but his condition quickly improved and his doctor said he was expected to be released from the hospital after a few days. Sharon aides said he was lucid and in control of the government

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[quote=“Chewycorns”]I wonder how much Sharon’s health will impact the results in the upcoming election.

msnbc.msn.com/id/10519823/page/2/

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a mild stroke Sunday, but his condition quickly improved and his doctor said he was expected to be released from the hospital after a few days. Sharon aides said he was lucid and in control of the government[/quote]

It looks like Sharon’s party could be in deep trouble – Sharon just had a massive stroke. I predict that if Sharon passed, most of his colleagues will return to Likud under Bibi.

[quote=“Globe and Mail”]
Jerusalem

13

[quote]Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said that “long-term comatose patients typically die of complications like this,” referring to necrosis.

Morrison said Sharon’s chances for survival are now “extremely small, almost zero.” [/quote] TaipeiTimes