With Ariel Sharon's stroke/cerebral hemorrhage yesterday, it has become pretty clear that he can no longer serve as Prime Minister of Israel. His powers have been transferred to his deputy, Ehud Ohlmert, pending the upcoming election in March. I am sure that all our prayers are with him, regardless of our political views of Sharon. May G-d bless him with a speedy and complete recovery. No matter what you can say about the guy, pro or con, he is a man of conviction who put his life on the line for his country and for the Jewish people repeatedly, and he deserves to be honored for that alone, if nothing else. And I personally think there's plenty more to honor him for as well.
Until yesterday, it was believed that Sharon's new Kadima party would win the upcoming election pretty handily, relegating Likud and Labor to secondary positions. Now, though, the political landscape has changed completely. Without Sharon at the head, the new party will pretty much whither and die. Names of possible PMs are already being floated, including Peres (ugghhh!), Ohlmert (a decent choice in my opinion), Netanyahu (I'm only lukewarm on this posibility) and Justice Minister Tzipy Livni (don't know enough about her to have an opinion). The future Israeli politics has just become very unclear. Sharon had no obvious successor, and the political fighting is going to be pretty fierce. Buth then, politics has always been a bloodsport in Israel, so that is nothing new.
On the international political front, Sharon was one of Bush's staunchest supporters, and certainly his strongest supporter in the Middle East. The loss of Sharon as an ally will certainly hurt (though probably not cripple) Bush's peace plans for the Israel/PA region. In my opinion, the chances of a lasting peace that also provides security for Israel just declined significantly, and that cannot be good for Bush, for the USA, or for Israel. One thing that Bush should learn from this, however, is the need to choose an heir apparent that the rest of the party can get behind. Right now, there is no obvious Bush-backed candidate for 2008. Bush needs to change that state of affairs.
Things have become very confused very quickly, and I have no idea how they are going to play out. I haven't been this clueless about what will happen next in Israeli politics in years.
Interesting times ahead... I just hope that it isn't in the Chinese sense of the word.
Elliot |
