Israel continues Sharon's legacy
Exit polls in Israel show that the Kadima Party, founded just 4 months ago by Ariel Sharon, is expected to win 28 to 32 seats in Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset. The leftish Labor Party came in second and is expected to win 20 to 22 seats. Kadima Party leader Ehud Olmert is expected to be able to pull together a governing coalition that leans to the center left. However, according to Isreallycool, this Knesset “may be one of the most split ones in history and would likely feature a fragile coalition.”
What does this portend? Well, it appears that the Israelis have given up on the hardliner approach and will essentially continue Sharon’s policies. Olmert will probably begin negotiations with the Palestinians to give up more land and evict more settlers. Considering the radicalism of Hamas, the negotiations will likely move slowly. It looks as if Israel has chosen to restrict itself to the tiniest portion of land that will support the country and resist terrorist attacks through the continued construction of walls, which has thus far been successful in limiting terrorist attacks.
Will these efforts toward appeasing the Palestinians bring peace? Doubtfully. Hamas respect Olmert no more than they did Sharon and they still maintain their goal of wiping Israel off the map. In fact, a Katyusha rocket was fired today from the Gaza Strip into Israel for the first time. Katysushas can travel close to 20 kilometers and can carry 20 kilograms of explosives.
Israel will likely continue negotiations to turn over the West Bank to the Palestinians, which would be an economic disaster for the Palestinians even though their leaders will not recognize it as such. As to a divided Jerusalem, who knows? Sharon was willing to give Arafat virtually everything he demanded and we can expect the new Israeli government to adopt and even more conciliatory attitude toward the Palestinians. Even though Israel has de facto control over the Temple Mount, access to it is controlled by Muslim authorities.
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