Sharon triggers political earthquake

Reuters ^ | November 21, 2005 | Allyn Fisher-Ilan

[West Coast Conservative]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet Israel's president on Monday to request a snap election he hopes to win as head of a new centrist party intent on pursuing peacemaking with the Palestinians.

In a move described by the Israeli media as a political earthquake, Sharon will ask President Moshe Katsav at their 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) meeting to dissolve parliament and call an election within 90 days, Israeli officials said.

Then Sharon will announce that he will quit the right-wing Likud party that he helped found to head a new centrist party in a move that is expected to reshape Israeli politics and peacemaking, the officials said.

By doing so, Sharon will break from the far-right Likud "rebels" who opposed his withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip and potentially free him to give up more land that Palestinians seek for a state.

"It's a tsunami," said Israel Radio political commentator Hannan Crystal.

"Sharon's move to reshape Israel's borders today also becomes a move to shape a new political map with him at the helm of a new centrist party," Crystal added.

The 77-year-old's gamble is possibly the biggest of a military and political career built on risk-taking. Polls indicate it is uncertain he can turn the popularity of the Gaza pullout into electoral victory.

Sharon had already agreed to bring forward the ballot from November 2006 to February or March.

In theory, Katsav could ask someone else to try to form a government -- an unlikely prospect -- otherwise he would dissolve parliament for an election to be held within 90 days.

Sharon has begun contacting political allies to join a new party he would head. Israeli media said 14 of Likud's 40 lawmakers, including five cabinet ministers, have agreed to join him.

He has also been wooing veteran peacemaker and old coalition ally Shimon Peres, whose November 10 defeat as leader of the center-left Labour party by union leader Amir Peretz triggered the political upheaval.

Sharon had been expected to announce his decision by a planned meeting on Monday with members of the parliamentary faction of Likud, which has long since failed to live up to its Hebrew name meaning "cohesion."

PEACEMAKING PLANS

Confidants have said Sharon wants to seize the chance to defeat Labour, then pursue plans to end conflict with the Palestinians without having to battle Likud hardliners.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday that in a third term, Sharon would seek to evacuate isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank while retaining major enclaves in a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Palestinians fear Sharon aims to set a border unilaterally along the lines of a barrier being built deep inside the West Bank. Israel says the barrier stops suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab.

Sharon has refused to negotiate statehood with the Palestinian Authority until it disarms militants.

As Sharon headed into new political territory, Labour's central committee, encouraged by fiery new leader Peretz, voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to leave the government it had joined to help him push through the Gaza withdrawal.

"Let the revolution begin," said party official Eitan Cabel as he announced the result of the vote in a show of hands.

Anticipating that Sharon would bolt and cause a leadership challenge, some Likud ministers suggested they would be ready to stand against Sharon's old rival Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned as finance minister to oppose the Gaza pullout.

Likud hardliners oppose giving up Jewish settlements on any of the land that Israel captured in the 1967 war. For many years Likud -- with Sharon at the forefront -- championed the building of the enclaves.

Recent polls suggest that a new party, bringing in some Labour members, would leave Sharon neck-and-neck with Peretz with Likud pushed into third place.

The precedent for starting breakaway parties in Israel is not encouraging for Sharon. Founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion failed miserably when he tried, before slipping from the political scene.

[adam_az]

"By doing so, Sharon will break from the far-right Likud "rebels" who opposed his withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip and potentially free him to give up more land that Palestinians seek for a state."

Huuuuuuuh?

Sharon bolts the party - and the majority of the party which opposed his policies and is glad to see him go are the rebels?

The author of this article is stuck on brainless.

[A CA Guy]

Sure seems like a science fiction movie involving evil clones, doesn't it?

[M. Espinola]

This is beyond incredible.

[The Duke]

Don't they do this in Israel every week or two?

[goldstategop]

Amir Peretz, famous for his large Zapitista moustache, is a Marxist buffoon who would convert Israel into a hybrid of Sweden and Belarus. He would destroy Israel's economy long before Sharon and his Oslo Lite cronies succeeded in reducing Israel to a vulnerable posture. The Labor Party is set for a third election loss.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[gaslucas1]

but, but, I always hear the MSM says that Sharon is an extreme right-winger, fanatic, racist and fundamentalist. Could the MSM have misinformed me???

[mmercier]

Why does not Sharon just nuke Tel Aviv and save the palestinians the trouble.

I wonder how they are going to pull this puppy out of the fire.

[Straight Vermonter]

ping

[Luke21]

This writer is as big an idiot as our own commies could ever dream of being.

[claudiustg]

What other choice did Sharon have. He could just announce his retirement and leave the field in shambles I suppose. Once the coalition with Labor broke apart his hand was forced. There is no way to put together a majority rightist coalition at this point, not with Sharon as it's head.

[Alouette]

"Before destruction comes arrogance, and haughtiness precedes failure." --Proverbs 16:18.

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

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[A. Pole]

Sure seems like a science fiction movie involving evil clones, doesn't it?

You mean like this?

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

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[Salem]

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"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."—FReeper sgtbono2002
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[Canadian Outrage]

A couple of years ago, Sharon, along with his two criminal sons, gave himself over to complete corruption. The man has been bought and I dare say has sold his soul!!

[M. Espinola]

To think of the General Sharon in 1967, 1973 and then leading the IDF in throwing Arafat & his PLO thugs out of Lebanon - to this.

What we are currently viewing is a adverse metamorphosis of Sharon the man and for the Israeli voting public, he has just thrown his nation into uncharted political territory .

It's also regrettable his putz sons became involved in crooked deals, but what's far worse is, if Washington is in anyway responsible for placing the national security of Israel at even greater risk to the Islamic terrorist death cults, there shall be reciprocity.

The coming year of 2006 will be volatile, and that may be putting it mildly.

[Valin]

Bump.

[John O]

"Sharon's move to reshape Israel's borders today also becomes a move to shape a new political map with him at the helm of a new centrist party," Crystal added.

The 77-year-old's gamble is possibly the biggest of a military and political career built on risk-taking

So he's gambling the future of his country to gain personal political power? Is this guy related to clinton?