Losing Israel’s Lion
04 January 2006 11:26 pm by Taylor Marsh
Losing Israel’s Lion
Mr. Sharon’s power as prime minister was
transferred to Deputy Premier Ehud Olmert. Israeli politics, dominated in recent
years by Mr. Sharon, were thrown into turmoil, especially with growing lawlessness
in the Gaza Strip.Mr. Sharon’s power as prime minister was transferred to Deputy
Premier Ehud Olmert. Israeli politics, dominated in recent years by Mr. Sharon,
were thrown into turmoil, especially with growing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip.
Sharon
Suffers ‘Extensive’ Stroke and Is ‘Very Grave’
You hardly need the
grim details. We’ve lost
Israel’s lion, the man who went from marauding murderer to a man who wanted
to change the face of his world by honoring the Palestinians’ right to a homeland.
At this hour we’re not talking death, but Ariel Sharon will never come back.
Neurosurgeons at Hadassah University Hospital,
Ein Karem fought to stabilize Ariel Sharon’s condition and stop new bleeding
detected in his brain Thursday morning, more than eight hours after the prime
minister was rushed into emergency surgery having suffered a “far-reaching”
stroke and a massive brain hemorrhage. Surgeons
fight to save Sharon’s life
There is never a good time to throw gasoline on a simmering fire,
but it looks like that’s what is about to happen.
The 55-page intelligence assessment, dated
July 1 2005, draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian
agencies, and has been used to brief European government ministers and to
warn leading industrialists of the need for vigilance when exporting equipment
or expertise to so-called rogue states.
It concludes that Syria and Pakistan have also been buying technology and
chemicals needed to develop rocket programmes and to enrich uranium. It outlines
the role played by Russia in the escalating Middle East arms build-up, and
examines the part that dozens of Chinese front companies have played in North
Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.But it is the detailed assessment of Iran’s nuclear
purchasing programme that will most most alarm western leaders, who have long
refused to believe Tehran’s insistence that it is not interested in developing
nuclear weapons and is trying only to develop nuclear power for electricity.
Governments in the west and elsewhere have also been dismayed by recent pronouncements
from the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said that Holocaust
denial is a “scientific debate” and that Israel should be “wiped
off the map”.
Secret
services say Iran is trying to assemble a nuclear missile
With Gaza
becoming even more unruly, Sharon’s absence from the scene is going to cause
even greater havoc.
We are about to enter a new era and it’s an altogether more uncertain
one than we are leaving. When you throw Iraq’s instability and that country’s
closeness with Iran, well, you’ve got an even more combustible situation than
we had before. It’s hard to believe that’s even possible, but there you have
it. An inauspicious start to the New Year, with more unknowns in the equation
than knowns, which won’t change for the foreseeable future.
