Monday, November 21, 2005

Ariel Sharon to leave Likud

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will announce on Monday that he intends to quit the Likud and form a new centrist political party".

Open question (feel free to comment): What will this mean for Israeli politics?

posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 7:54 AM

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1 Comments:

  • Interesting development. I have to agree with Matt Yglesias' comment:

    I'm no expert on this, and certainly one can rarely go wrong with pessimistic predictions about the Israeli-Palestinain conflict, but Ariel Sharon's plan to leave Likud and form a new centrist party seems to me to be the latest in a string of apparently positive developments out of that part of the world. Now you'll have an Israeli leaders with the "hawkish" credibility necessary to sell a deal to the electorate but without the traditional Likud dependence on maximalists.

    I believe I read (can't find where at the moment) that Shimon Peres is joining the new party after losing the leadership of Labour to Amir Peretz. This new party, in my opinion (which is probably shared by most people), will appeal to many Israelis, who do not support the hardline religious leaders on the right and are wary of the dovish Labour Party.

    That said, I'm not familiar with Amir Peretz, so I don't know how appealing he will be in a general election, although I have read he has attracted many people to Labour who traditionally were not supporters of the party.

    The election will be interesting, no doubt.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:46 PM  

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