Not a good analogy

Submitted by Joshua (United States), Nov 30, 2005 at 12:04

This is indeed unprecedented. Not just in Israel but as far as I know anywhere. A sitting head of state, who is popular with the electorate, has decided to leave his party and form a new one.

Ben-Gurion is not analogous. He was no longer running Mapai.

David Makofsky pointed out that Likud, as of late, had two general factions. The hard-liners and the hard-bargainers. The former are ideologically opposed to a Palestinian state. The latter are not, but believe that Israel should try to get as good a deal as possible and need as many security guarantees as possible.

Sharon may have at one point been a hard liner, but for most of his career he has been a hard-bargainer. He also realizes when he has to cut his losses, and pulled out of Gaza for that reason.

The bottom line is Sharon recognizes that there will be a Palestinian state in some shape or form, and he's convinced he can a) get the best deal possible and b) be the one to sell it to the Israeli electorate. He couldn't do that when 1/3 to 1/2 of his party was opposing his agenda and trying to remove him from leadership.

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