BBC (Thursday): Sharon seals new Israel coalition

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Thursday December 30 14:10 GMT (6:10 am PST)

Sharon seals new Israel coalition

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is to name opposition leader Shimon Peres as his deputy in a compromise deal that paves the way for a new coalition government.

Correspondents say Mr Peres' precise role had been the final obstacle to forming a coalition.

This had been held up by a constitutional ban on having more than one vice-prime minister, a title Mr Peres had sought.

However, the constitution does allow for several "deputy" prime ministers.

Read more.

[Benhurst]

1. Oh, this is great. Another war criminal stays in power. NT

[The Magistrate]

2. An Interesting Development, Mr. Rabbit

It is not wholly to my liking, but perhaps some good will come of it....

[Jack Rabbit]

3. It will please me, Sir, if something positive comes from it

That will remain to be seen. Peres and Labor have shown little ability to moderate Sharon when a grand coalition such as this comes into being.

Sharon and his allies have been saying since he became PM that Israel had no reliable peace partner in Arafat. That was true, for whatever reason. However, given Sharon's past, it would be just as easy to say that neither did the Palestinians have a reliable peace partner during that time.

Let's forget that. Who cares whose signatures are on a peace accord as long as it works? We are looking to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state, disarm private Palestinian militias so that only that state will have the power to make war, withdraw the IDF from the territories and repatriate Israeli settlers. It is the act, not the actor that is important.

A Jewish democracy cannot persist in a state where Jews are a minority and non-Jewish natives of land do not wish to live in a Jewish state, especially if it means living with having their homes upraised for housing in which they cannot live and roads on which they cannot travel. Sharon has apparently seen the light and now realizes that swallowing the West Bank and Gaza into a Greater Israel would be fatal to the Zionist ideal. Nevertheless, Sharon has spent a lifetime encouraging the notion of a Greater Israel. It is now up to him dismantle much of what he has built.

If he has the will to do that, he may actually salvage his reputation to posterity.