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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (8279)	12/9/2004 1:22:54 AM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

>> Their leader was gay. << Isn't that interesting. And you know this because____________________________________. Fill in the blank Darren. E'M'

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (8279)	12/10/2004 10:48:17 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Sharon emerges victorious after internal opposition Friday, 10 December , 2004, 20:19 Jerusalem: Despite several defeats on the battlefield, Ariel Sharon, the former general turned Israeli prime minister, has finally won the war to implement his Gaza pullout plan after neutralising his internal enemies. Four months after the central committee of his Likud party humiliatingly barred him from asking the main opposition Labour faction into government, the same body reached the conclusion late Thursday that it had no option but to give Sharon the room to maneuver he needs to put a new government into place. The margin of victory, by 1,410 votes to 857, was ultimately comfortable but Sharon knows it does not necessarily mean that vast swathes of Likudniks have been converted to the idea of uprooting Jews from the Gaza Strip. But the burly premier, nicknamed the bulldozer for his often combative and sometimes destructive nature, ultimately won the day by insisting that the Gaza pullout would take place come what may and brandishing the threat of snap elections if the Likud did not back his strategy. "The threat of early elections and the shortening of their term of office in the Knesset were the catalyst that changed the position," said the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily. "The great majority of these (hardliners) still opposes the evacuation of settlements from Gaza and the unilateral disengagement plan. "They find it difficult to understand why Sharon is leading the Likud to an internal rift. They do understand that if they do not rally behind him they will hang -- and not alongside him." According to political analyst Avraham Diskin, Sharon's sense of conviction was key to his victory. "He's stubborn, he sticks to his guns and he has a strong conviction that he is in the right," Diskin told AFP. "He understands that the Palestinians are never going to become great Zionists and so the only way to come to a settlement with them is by separation, by leaving Gaza. That's what he is going to do." Ben Caspit, a columnist for the Maariv daily, also drew an analogy with Sharon's military background while explaining Sharon's victory. It was all the more impressive as Likud members had voted against the whole disengagement plan in a referendum back in May. "It seemed impossible, it was difficult, it went slowly, but it finally happened. The prime minister succeeded in taming his party," said Caspit. "The rebellion was overcome, the last nests of resistance were cleared out, the last rebels are still waging a last-ditch battle, but Sharon is already on his way to the next destination. "This time, contrary to custom, Sharon lost nearly all the battles, but won the war. It took him time to start up the bulldozer, warm up the engines and start to move. But as soon as he got going, he was unstoppable." By leaving Gaza and four small Jewish enclaves in the northern West Bank, Sharon is hoping to alleviate pressure for a more comprehensive withdrawal from the West Bank where the vast majority of the 245,000 settlers live. The Palestinian government is deeply suspicious of Sharon's intentions, but negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said his victory could prove to be a boon to the peace process. "We hope the formation of a new Israeli government will lead to the reviving of a meaningful peace process," Erakat told AFP. sify.com