Sharon, the Moderate

Somebody pinch me. I thought Sharon was towards the right end of the Likud Party, not a centrist. He was heckled, booed, and overridden at a meeting of the Likud Central Committee, which pretty much confirmed his status as a one-term Prime Minister. The Central Committee voted 2,597-3 (approximately) to pass a resolution that Sharon had tried to delay, saying that Likud would never accept a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.

If there was ever any doubt, Likud is now 100% against the two-state solution, which has been the only option for peace considered since the peace process began in 1988. I'm very saddened; I had harbored a slim hope that Netanyahu's eloquence and ability to rally people behind him would enable him to cut a deal with the Palestinians. Now, however, he has firmly planted himself off in the surreal mists of the far-right. By declaring that Palestine will always be their enemy, they implicitly make themselves forever the enemy of Palestine, and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Israel is going to prevent a Palestinian state from existing, of course Palestinians are going to fight Israel! What else would you expect???

I'm beginning to wonder how this conflict is going to end, and right now the only conceivable ending that I can come up with is that somehow, someday Israel will lose a war. While I don't wish evil on Israel or anyone, I can't help but consider a serious military defeat merely the reaping of the whirlwind they have sown.