Sharon fighting for his life...

[Abraham]

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon suffered a severe stroke last night and the chances seem slim that he might ever be an effective political leader again, if he even survives. Apart from this personal tragedy, it will have a tremendous inpact on Israeli politics.

Sharon had just founded the new Kadima (progres) party, breaking with his former Likud party. The main idea was to unilaterally withdraw from much of the occupied territories without consulting the Palestinian leadership. After Sharon left the Labor party the leadership of this party was taken over by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netaniahu. At about the same time the Labour party suffered a crisis: old-timer Shimon Peres was replaced by a much youger and more progressive trade union leader Perez. Shimon Peres consequently joined Sharon's Kadima, as did many of Sharon's Cabinet Ministers.

Sharon is (was) the first Israeli politician to take the drastic step of giving up land without anything (peace) in teturn. He not only got away with it, but became highly popular in Israel.

Personally, I think that Sharon, having been a hard liner in the past, was the only Israeli politician who could withdraw from the occupied territories an give up settlements, and politically come away with it. In the democracy that Israel is, any concession towards the Palestinians need broad political support and the Palestinians are not really convincing the Israeli's to give that support for concessions...
Sharon's demise would have serious consequences for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the more so since the Palestinian Authority seems to be completely eroded and the Gaza Strip seems to have turned into a complete anarchy.