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January 5, 2006
Sharon Out

With Sharon out of politics, will the road map he had buried be revived, or will the Israeli right be the stronger force?

From a recent LA Times OpEd West Bank buildup

THE WEST BANK settlements of Ariel and Karnei Shomron are about to expand. In mid-December, Israel’s Housing Ministry invited bids from contractors on lots for 137 new homes. The decision was made "with the knowledge of the prime minister," according to a source who spoke off the record because that’s how sources tell the important parts of stories. No matter that the "road map," the 2003 document that remains the U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, explicitly states that Israel must freeze all settlement activity. …

And who will get those $3 million bribes now?

Posted by b on January 5, 2006 at 08:18 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Comments on Sharon started here in the recent Open Thread.

Posted by: b | Jan 5 2006 8:39 utc | 1

I suspect that Sharon is “technically” dead and they’ll keep him alive until Israeli politics can be sorted for the Yankee heir in waiting.
Bit like Arafat really.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 5 2006 12:59 utc | 2

The SPIEGEL carriesthis redicules headline:
Ära Scharon endet – Friedensprozess in Gefahr
“Aera Sharon ending – peace process endangered”
Since when did Sharon do anything for a peace process???

Posted by: b | Jan 5 2006 13:06 utc | 3

Exactly Bernhard. What fucking peace process?

Posted by: ran | Jan 5 2006 14:23 utc | 4

Fitting here: Juan Cole has a good piece on Abramoff financing Zionist Terrorism.

Posted by: b | Jan 5 2006 14:33 utc | 5

sometime juan comes in very handily,cool link
malooga, i want to hear the cd’s. make contact if you can share them

Posted by: annie | Jan 5 2006 16:02 utc | 6

I am curious as to what this means for Kadima (or is it Kadema?). Is it such a new creation that it will be abandoned by others now that Sharon is out of the picture or might it make an better election result if Sharon dies (it would not be the first time a dead politician wins an election)?
As I do not know much about Israeli politics I have no clue. Perhaps you who do know a bit might enlighten me with a guess?

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Jan 5 2006 18:32 utc | 7

A Swede,
Pipes has a column saying Katima is now dead, I think he is wrong. There are now three realistic contenders for the PM job. Netanyahu, who will be running on the Likut ticket as the security guy, Peretz will be running on the Labor ticket as the working class economic guy, and Olmert who will take over for Sharon and will run on the Katima ticket as the Sharon guy. Olmert used to be mayor of Jerusalem and used to be an extreme hawk but has now become more moderate. He ran against Sharon for leader of Likud, but has become very close to Sharon. My guess is that Olmert wins in March.
Joe

Posted by: joe | Jan 5 2006 20:50 utc | 8

Happy New Year to All…
I suspected he was gone already…but the Elite needed some time to plan, hence the wires are still hooked up. Seems to be the case, unless someone knows this source to be unreliable.
Israel Resource News Agency confirms that at about noon today [Jan 5], Israel time, doctors at Hadassah Hospital and security officials at the Israel Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv were simultaneously informed that Prime Minister Sharon had died during surgery.
Israel Resource News Agency has again spoken with officials from both Hadassah and the Israel Ministry of Defence who were officially informed at noon of Sharon’s death. Link

Posted by: jj | Jan 6 2006 3:21 utc | 9

US interests lie in status quo in this mess. With their increasing militancy Likud just over reached their role and Labor is pretty much ineffective (or perhaps too dangerous to court). A middling party with no clear plan and a “if you do this then we do that” program when it know that you can’t do this will maintain status quo. My bet is Olmert pulls it out. As the fundies are marginalized in the US their influence will decline on the middle east policy as well, and then we are not ready for “rapture” yet. So we have to drag this situation on for another decade of two.
Max

Posted by: Max Andersen | Jan 6 2006 8:28 utc | 10

I see Israeli doctors are now saying that Sharon’s prospects of recovery are ‘slim’.
Fat chance.

Posted by: Delighted | Jan 6 2006 20:05 utc | 11

These mainchancing wannabe leaders of the world are a sick bunch. Yeah yeah we did already know that.
jj’s link above (hiya jj) tells us:
“”Israel Resource News Agency confirms that at about noon today, Israel time, doctors at Hadassah Hospital and security officials at the Israel Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv were simultaneously informed that Prime Minister Sharon had died during surgery.
Israel Resource News Agency has again spoken with officials from both Hadassah and the Israel Ministry of Defence who were officially informed at noon of Sharon’s death.
That begs the question: why does the government of Israel deny reports of Sharon’s death? “
That part of the article answers the last question pretty tamely but in other parts of the link two possible motives are suggested.
One is that they are concerned about an Israeli stock-market crash so they will wait until Sunday when the market is closed to make the announcement. I must that’s a bit handy for those in the know as we can expect them to do a bit of short selling in the next couple of days.
Now that will almost certainly cause a plunge in Israeli stockmarket. However where would we be if the best interests of the great unwashed put ahead the elites need for more ‘resources’.
The other reason given is even sicker. That is working out a suitable time, place and date for the ‘A’ list attendees at asshole’s sendoff.
I’m not up on organised religion but perhaps someone familiar with Judaism could tell us if there are rules about how soon after someone dies they have to be buried?
All of this goes to reinforce my contention that people in or wanting elected office are in fact suffering from a debilitating (for the rest of humanity anyhow) disorder.
Still it’s quite cathartic to see shit like this happen to an asshole like the war crim.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jan 6 2006 21:58 utc | 12

I see Israeli doctors are now saying that Sharon’s prospects of recovery are ‘slim’.
Well, at least something about him is slim.
As far as middle east peace, it doesn’t look like we will ever get to hear the fat man sing.
Jewish law is very strict about the body being buried within 24 hours. I know many examples of people missing their own families funerals because of this. My own father died on Christmas Eve while I was living in the Virgin Islands. I had to get people out of bed at night to get home in time (made the funeral by 15 minutes).
Now debs gives some convincing reasons why his death could be covered up, and it is certainly possible. One shouldn’t let a little religion get in the way of wielding power. I guess we will have to wait and see the proof over the weekend.
I should note that Israeli Insider, jj’s link, is a right wing propaganda rag, not notable for its accuracy on Israeli/Palestinian issues.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 6 2006 23:57 utc | 13

You can always count on Pat Robertson to deliver some batshit new revelation about the mysterious workings of the Divine Sociopath.
I’m looking at this record… God wants Palestinians to suffer, God wants Chavez assassinated for trying to make Venezuela more egalitarian, God drowned New Orleans because of their Mardi gras excesses, God commanded Bush the Younger to rain death upon Iraqis, God unleashed AIDS upon the world as punishment for fornicators… Maybe Patrick Fitzgerald would do well to begin investigating this God person. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get Him for insider trading at the very least.

Posted by: Monolycus | Jan 7 2006 0:14 utc | 14

The only thing one could say, and possibly defend with evidentiary proof, that “God” wants, is that every living being will eventually die. Sharon weighed 260 lbs., and lived 77 Jupiterian years. That’s a pretty good run for any human being. “God” cannot be proved to be concerned with his detestibility.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 7 2006 1:01 utc | 15

@Malooga
Your very considered response to my minirant has led me to believe that I should always makes sure not to leave my snark tags open. Of course I was being entirely facetious. Unlike Robertson, the Bushes and other jihadists, it’s not politically expedient for me to conjecture about what God wants.

Posted by: Monolycus | Jan 7 2006 7:35 utc | 16

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