Word: sharone
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Middle Eastern Paradox #2785: The collapse of Ariel Sharon's national unity government is a sign of stability in Israeli politics. Sharon's Defense Minister Benjamin ben-Eliezer took his Labor Party out of the unity government on Wednesday in a move that may precipitate fresh elections. Sharon faces a no-confidence vote in the Knesset next Monday, which will determine whether he'll manage to attract sufficient support to continue governing with a narrower coalition or be forced to call new elections for early next year...
...immediate issue precipitating the split was the failure of the two sides to agree on Labor Party demands that Sharon amend his budget to reallocate funds away from the West Bank and Gaza settlements that form a central part of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and instead spend the money on sectors of Israeli society left vulnerable by the country's shrinking economy. But there's nothing new about either the government's support for the settlements or the economic woes of millions of Israelis, which has Israeli analysts opining that ben-Eliezer is simply reaching...
...reclaim the reins of power. After all, it's hard to fight an election against a government in which you're serving as a junior partner. Labor activists have long warned that the party is making itself irrelevant by its failure to articulate an alternative to the policies of Sharon. Now, ben-Eliezer has given himself the space to define his party as a challenger, rather than a peon, to Sharon. But it may be a Quixotic charge. The problem for Labor is that polls indicate that Sharon's party will easily win a new election, possibly by an even...
...Eliezer also faces a primary challenge from legislator Haim Ramon and Haifa mayor Amram Mitzna, and he currently trails both men in the polls. Some Israeli analysts speculate that his sudden choice of the path of confrontation with Sharon is motivated in no small part by his desire to see off challengers within his own party. But it remains to be seen whether either Mitznah or Ramon is considered a credible candidate by the party's base or were simply a protest-vote choice of activists looking to get ben-Eliezer out of the government. Labor's decision also inserts...
...even when the Israeli people overwhelmingly elected Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister—62 to 37 percent—because they demanded security and deterrence, they also made clear that on all the key substantive issues they were more willing than ever before to make concessions if (a very big if) the Palestinians stop the violence and incitement, and negotiate in good faith. According to exit polls the day Sharon was elected, Israelis were twice as likely as two years earlier (when Ehud Barak defeated former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) to make concessions on Jerusalem, a Palestinian state...