There’s been a request made for a post on Ariel Sharon starting the new Kadima party, and what it means to Israel. Well, I don’t consider myself an expert on Israeli politics. I keep up a bit, and I’m certain that Arik will win (and that’s bolstered by the latest polls, which have him slamming the opposition combined). But Omri is your go-to guy for analysis of Israeli politics. Or Imshin, sometimes.
Omri posts regularly on Israeli politics. Try this, this, and this for starters.
Soccer Dad has an in-depth analysis as well. I think I’ll leave it in their very capable hands for now.
I will say this: I’m waiting to see if Sharon can pull a rabbit out of his hat, because I don’t think he’s being hard enough either on the terrorists or on Iran. I am not nearly as pessimistic as Caroline Glick (long-time readers may have noticed that I no longer quote her columns; she’s gone way too far to the right for me), but she does have a few points. Israel has an existential threat in Iran no less dangerous than she had in 1948 and 1967. While the Arrow missiles are a step, they’re not a guarantee that Israel will not suffer a nuclear holocaust.
Another problem I have with Sharon is his inability to get a physical consensus for what he wants to do. If he had put the Gaza withdrawal to a vote, he would have won the initiative. Instead, he forced it down Israelis’ throats by fiat. Israel is a democratic state. Sharon will do well to remember that, and not get too excited over the number of seats Kadima wins in the spring.
Any way you look at it, these next few months are going to be critical to the future of Israel, especially now that the palestinians are loading up on terrorists in Gaza. Even the AP is noticing it (with their typical anti-Israel spin, of course).
The terror war continues. How Israel, the United States, and the rest of the world respond to it is still a work in progress. But the front has been Israel for many decades.
I don’t think Ms. Glick has moved to the right. She simply stayed put when Sharon shifted. She is strident at times, but she has a sharp eye, a gift for language, and she appears to be absolutely fearless when it’s time to note that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.
IMO, David Horovitz, who became editor-in-chief of the JPost when Bret Stephens left for the WSJ, started out center-left, but he’s been shifting rightward, and I think it has a lot to do with Glick’s solid analysis.
I’m inclined to agree with Ben F. I always find Caroline a good read, although I have noticed of late a tendency to be a bit shrill. Maybe that is merely the sign of a passionate commentator.
Nevertheless, it is helpful to read about Israel’s flawed democracy (no disrespect intended), where the Supreme Court and the Office of the Attorne-General seem to be the handmaiden of Labour, and corruption, it is alleged, can reach up into the nation’s highest offices. Like Caroline, the approach the Government took to the Gaza withdrawal was, I believe, a betrayal of those who had been there for decades (some since 1948, or even earlier).
Maybe it was a simple recognition of reality – a Judenrein Gaza was, after all what the Arabs wanted. (Next on their wish-list, of course, is a Judenrein “West Bank” and then “Israel”!)
Having said all that, Israel lives as a functioning democracy in the midst of a 60 year (mostly “hot”) war with genocidal, anti-democratic neighbours. Its challenges today will be to neutralise the fresh radicalism of Gaza, stare down the Iranian theocracy when no-one else in the world seems to be giving it any serious attention, and unify its society by building respect for its own survival amongst the many Israelis who can’t even support a two-state option – they’ve moved on to the one-state option (a “secular” Palestine) where Jews revert to dhimmitude under a beneficent caliphate.
Perhaps Sharon and Peres, by shaking Israel’s political landscape, will be doing everybody a favour – I just wish there was a clearer plan laid out – or one that I could discern, anyway.