The passing from the political scene of Arial Sharon, "the man of peace,"
MIGHT be good for middle east peace... Contrary to currrent pundit opinon...
Israelis seem to want a middle ground...something between the "Greater Israel" of the Likud fanatics...and the land for peace of the liberals.
The passing of Sharon from the picture could be just the ticket for a New Deal in the Palestinian conflict...
For one thing, the Palestinians hated Sharon PERSONALLY, and considered him to be a War Criminal...that hatred is now dissipated or diverted.
Both Israelis and Palestinians are now, finally, free of the "old guard" that forced everything to the extremes... Both Sharon and Arafat ignored the US efforts toward peace....even recently Sharon was ignoring Bush's pleas to stop the settlement building on the West Bank.
And perhaps without their "old enemy" to bomb...even Hamas will be able to temper it's hate for the government of Israel.
Bush & Co should immediately form an alliance with the Israeli left and center...and push for final boundries and a Palestinian state on the West Bank.... TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE...
Any reemergence of the Likud will be a disaster for Israel, the middle east and for Dubya's disasterous Iraq adventure...indeed, it was probably Dubya's Debacle in Iraq that convinced Sharon to abandon the Likud and move to the center... Dubya's Iraq Disaster may have scared Sharon straight on the viability of long term occupation of Arab lands! And of course the Washington Neocons all scattered like mice after the "cakewalk" scenario flopped in Baghdad....a/k/a "The Aftermath."
You will get little in the way of "Arab Opinion" concerning the passing of Mr Sharon on the American Media...I would suggest the BBC for more balanced coverage.
But the passing of Sharon...the symbol of Greater Israel on the West Bank...could be the "breakthrough" that we were hoping for when Arafat died.
The slate is wiped clean now...but only for a while...this is a gold opportunity for Washington to intervene and get the peace that was impossible while the OLD GUARD was in power in on both sides...
Is Bush up to it...?
