Israel after Sharon

As you all should know, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suffered a severe stroke, and will no longer be able to run the Israeli government if he survives.

What do you think is the international effect of this, and what do you think will now happen in Israeli politics?

I personally see Sharon as the only strong leader in Israel these days. Sadly, the Israeli political process became much more similar to that of the U.S. lately. The people judge candidates more by thier character and less by thier goals and issues. The Kadima centralist party, which is just a mirror reflection of Sharon, has suffered a great blow.

The Kadima party was the only one who actually acted and made decisions. I myself am a strong supporter of Sharon. He was intelligent enough to realize that a withdrawl from Gaza and the territories is a necessety to the peace process. He gave the Palestinians what they wanted, while protecting Israeli citizens with the Security Wall which is one of the greatest ideas of his term.

What will happen now?

Olmert does not seem to want control as badly as one would think. During the Knesset session today he did not even sit on the PMs chair, where he belongs for the next 100 days.

Olmert must stand up, and rise his voice or the Kadima party is doomed. The liberal Labour group have no strong presidential candidates, while the Likut has Bibi Netanyahu, who is a familiar and rather trusted face in Israeli politics.

Unless Olmert stands up and shows great strengh and leadership, the Likud will win the March 28th elections. If the Likud does win, then all you hippies can say goodbye to peace in the Middle East. Bibi is heartless, and he will act uppon that fact in full strengh when he invades the territories and Gaza.

So, do pray for Kadima and for a loss for the Hammas in the Palestinian elections... it is the only hope for peace in the Middle East.

 

God bless the guy. if the palestinians really want peace, then the hammas will be rejected. the guy who takes over can't get caught up in the doubts. he needs to pick his balls up over his shoulder and get that last yard.

 

I would like to see some younger talent come in and people who aren't as stone-hearted and ideological. It's not good when the same handful of people control things for nearly 40 years.

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The problem is that people will not follow anyone younger. Israeli politics work through a system of prestige gained by military experience, personal achievements, past governmental positions, etc.

 

Well, then maybe that needs to change a little. The last 40 years has been close to a stalemate between people such as Arafat and Sharon. Not to say they didn't work their way through the ranks, but the system gets stale after that many decades of the same few people controlling the situation.

Moreover, the rest of the public starts getting frustrated by it and begins to form splinter groups and other more violent groups to try to bring about change.

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Also, when I say younger talent, I mean people without white hair. Age 60 could be considered younger talent when it comes to Palestine and Israel.

Then of course there are the crackpots here in the U.S. stirring up the mud that we have to deal with, like this one:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/05/robertson.sharon/index.html
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Well, I have not seen any more violent groups on the Israeli side, while there are new terror groups on the Palestinian side.

I would also honestly like to see some more young talent. I am registered as a "Green Leaf" voter, which is the liberal, environmentalist, pro-legalization political party in Israel. The leader is only 30 ish years old if I am not mistaken, it would be lovely to see him in the Knesset, and then slowly work his way up through Israel's liberal public.

 

Maybe you can work yourself up the ranks. Are you heading back to Israel eventually?

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I think they should give the job to Pat Robertson - apparently he knows what's best for God's land

 

Eventually... maybe.

But... I skipped the draft, so I doubt that I will have much voice in Israeli politics unless I go to the army.

and DHS, lol!

 

I saw a documentary on the history channel or something like that about how the israelis have issues with jewish extremists trying to blow up the dome of the rock. Both sides have terrorists, but only one side has tanks.

 

I have hate in my heart for Jewish extremists myself. They are very controlled now though... there hasn't been a major extremist attack on the Palestinians throughout all of Sharon's term.

 

I really do regret to say this because I do feel sad for what's befalle Sharon, but I think that it's for the best that someone new is going to have to step up. I'm hoping that with the end of Sharon's ministry, the sordid foreign affairs relationship between Israel and the U.S. will end. I just hope that whoever does rise to this challenge does a better job of truly reaching out for peace, though. I'm optimistic.

 

The tie between the US and Israel cannot end.

 

Exactly, Israel and the US will remain "allies" until the end of time.

 

There are different degrees of democracy. France and Japan have some of the most bureaucratic governmets in the world but are civilised places to live in. Maybe the problem with Isreal is that it is too democratic and need more Sir Humphrey Applebys.

 

The Bush admin has been fond of Sharon. When Israel was bombing Arafat's compound a couple years ago and only one room was left and being run by candlelight, the press asked Bush what should be done about the situation. Bush gave one of his typical shallow responses and said "Uh, well, Arafat still has a little power left in his cell phone. Why doesn't he use that phone to tell the Palestinian terrorists to stop their attacks."

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Sounds reasonable to me. Im horrified by innocents being blasted by suicide bombers in buses and pizza parlors.


Sharon was realistic, he got out of bad situations in Lebanon and Gaza.

He built The Wall when he could not connect with a peace faction in Palistine.

Where we go from here is anyones guess.

 

Bush thought military force was going to scare away the enemy in Iraq also. And the Palestinian terrorists thought military action was going to fix their problems too. And Israel thought that bombing Arafats headquarters was going to solve their problems.

If only Arafat had a few more minutes left on that cell phone battery. Our problems would have been solved.

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Arafat, together with the rest of the Palestinian authority had no control of the terrorists. My major issue with Israel's approach is that it does not do enough to separate the "Palestinians" from the "Terrorists".