Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke and cerebral hemorrage. He may not survive. People generally do not recover from a “massive stroke.” I think no matter what, the Sharon era is over, and Israel is in need of a new leader.
I am hoping that someone can step up and take the reins of Kadima, because Israel needs a centrist party. Israel also needs an honest politician for Prime Minister, but I don’t know how realistic that is.
Netanyahu is unelectable. Likud is mostly in the Kadima camp. The Labor party is a laughingstock and has no base.
The problem is, who is going to step up and be the next Sharon? Who will lead Israel through these next few perilous years? The war is coming, and Israel’s enemies will be emboldened by the loss of Sharon. Watch for the “hand of Allah” comments from the Muslim world, and the celebratory gunfire from the pals (and their EU and American enablers).
It’s definitely time for a Maccabee.
Which is not to say I’m not praying for a miracle. But a massive stroke? That one’s almost always a deal-breaker.
Update: Omri has much more.
The AP story.
The AP bio, parts one and two.
The Reuters article, replete with gloating by Hamas.
Compare and contrast: Reuters downplays Sharon’s military brilliance in this supposed highlights article.
Predictably, the palestinians are gloating. This, in spite of the fact that Ariel Sharon is the only Israeli Prime Minister who gave them land for a palestinian state.
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Sharon has (for all his faults) become an indispenable man. The amount of slander directed his way by the enemies of Israel (NY Times, Guardian, BBC, Pat Buchanan) proved how effective a leader he had become.
Yeah, here we go…
But check this out (from the same article)
How about that?
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Israel needs a Maccabee….I could not make any better statement than that! Israel needs a brillant military leader…Israel still needs Sharon…or someone just like him. Is there anyone in Israel similiar to Sharon?
Kadima is a path to nowhere. I don’t know who can lead us now, because anyone who is good enough is unelectable.
Interesting times.
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We all wish Mr. Sharon a full and speedy recovery.
Meryl, please don’t take the MSM’s descriptions of the political parties at face value.
Kadimah is the Sharon family’s flimsy political life-raft, which drew the rats and vermin pushed out of the other parties – either because they lost in primaries and/or because of their corruption. They stand for nothing but clinging to Sharon’s coattails – and now that events have taken such an unfortunate and (G-d forbid) tragic turn, they are likely to sink in the polls, taking much of the scum in Israeli politics along with them.
Labor is quixotically returning to socialism, trying to mine old populist and ethnic fault lines. Yet many Israelis know in their bones that life is better now than it was in a socialized economy.
I suggest you take another good look at Netanyahu and the Likud. Going by the election results – and the platform Sharon ran on last time – Likud’s platform is the most truly ‘centrist’ – and the most rational in both security and economic policy.
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Mattathias cries out in the second chapter of the Book of Maccabees: “Follow me, all who are zealous for the Torah and stand by the covenant.” The Maccabee candidate therefore would be Moshe Feiglin, who openly aims to ground the state in “Jewish values,” by which he means not the rootless social conscience that you derided in Peter Yarrow’s “Light One Candle,” but a commitment to Torah.
I think that, for all his flaws, Netanyahu is both the best candidate in the field and the most electable.
It is always tempting to take an historic event and see evidence that God is on your side. So I would be suspicious of anyone who claimed that Hashem “touched” Sharon last month, which led to much media commentary that this would slash voter support for Kadima, but Kadima’s poll numbers yesterday were stronger than ever, so Sharon was “touched” again.
I hope that Sharon recovers and lives for many more years, but if I had my druthers his future political role would be that of a “wise old man” on the outside, sort of like the post-resignation Nixon.
Sharon was a warrior. The Maccabees were warriors. Israel needs another warrior to lead her through these dangerous times.
I wasn’t asking for a Hasmonean, Ben. I’m asking for a fighter.
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