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Sharon resigns as Israel PM
...Leaves Likud, building new
party
BY A CORRESPONDENT
21st November 2005
Ariel Sharon, prime minister of
Israel, on November 21 resigned from
the Likud party he helped build three
decades back. He has asked the
President for fresh Parliamentary
elections. As per schedule, the
elections were to be held in November
2006.
In his resignation letter, Sharon told
President Moshe Katsav that the Likud
government could not function in the
present political climate. Ever since
Sharon announced his policy of
withdrawal from the occupied
territories, he has come under fire
from party hardliners, who accused him
of surrendering to the Palestinians.
Sharon is busy setting up his new
party, inclding his Likud loyalists
and supporters from the conservative
party. Sharon is also believed to be
tapping Nobel peace prize winner
Shimon Peres for his new party.
Sharon's aggressive step sent
shockwaves through world's political
capitals. Sharon was always known as
the hardline face of Likud, till he
changed tack in the 2000s.
A former army general, he has been
instrumental in building the Likud of
today, though he has been alienated in
the party for some time now. The party
did not support his move to pull out
of Gaza. But Sharon teamed up with
opposition Labour party to push
through his revolutionary idea.
A former army man, he took part in
Israel's independence war in 1948 and
in 1953, led a raid into Jordan. Later
in the Six Days War, he commanded
several divisions, which led to the
occupation of Gaza, West Bank, Golan
and Sinai. In 1977 Sharon was elected
to the legislature and became
agricultural minister. Later as
defence minister, he led the army to
Lebanon to ferret out Palestinian
guerillas. Following this, Christian
militants attacked and killed hundreds
of Palestinians in refugee camps.
However, this proved to be Sharon's
undoing soon. In 1983, he was forced
to resign after an inquiry found him
indirectly responsible for the
massacre of Palestinians.
In 1998, as foreign minister, Ariel
Sharon called for as much
land-grabbing as possible in occupied
territories to erect settlements. He
came to power as Prime Minister in
2001.
Sharon's hardline agenda envisaged the
settlement of occupied territories by
Jews. However, after his re-election
with a bigger margin in 2003, Sharon
sensed the winds of change.
In late 2003, Sharon announced his
policy of "disengagement" which was
diametrically opposite to what he
preached all these years. Likud
politicians could not stomach Sharon's
about-turn, and hit out at him. The
peace deal with the new head of
Palestine endeared him to neither Jews
nor Palestinians. But a resolute
Sharon courted Labour politicians to
push the vote and won. However, a
strong section of his own party and
ultra-nationalists had turned against
him by now.
Sharon is not known for bowing under
pressure. The long-time hardliner
knows his ground and plays his cards.
Sharon is convinced that Likud is a
party without a future. Besides, if he
pulls off peace with the Palestinians,
Sharon will go down in history as the
final architect of peace in the
Middle-East. That will be a goal worth
scoring for a right-wing hawk who
spent his entire career and life
advocating aggression as the natural
means to an end.
BY A CORRESPONDENT |
