The Party Is Over

The biggest political news out of Israel in a few years: Ariel Sharon is quitting the party he helped establish. Israeli politics is pretty fractious, and Sharon created the Likud Party back in the 1970's by splitting from Labor, but this marks the first time a party is being established for the purpose of dealing with the Palestinian question. Sharon's new look, "National Responsibility", will try to be centrist on internal questions (government spending, religious affairs), and push forward Sharon's vision of a final settlement between Israel and Palestine. Of course, Sharon is not quite an objective observer, and as an old-fashioned Realpolitiker, he's not ashamed to use Israel's overwhelming military and economic power to achieve a highly advantageous settlement. Whether he can do so in a way that leaves Palestinians with enough that they will be able to build some kind of state remains to be seen.