Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has obtained the maximum from his government’s political crisis. He is now rushing toward whatever new political achievements he can make.
By going to the president and calling for early elections, Sharon set Israel’s political agenda in accordance with his political needs, which should crown his decades-long career.
The accelerated timetable for elections early February has enabled Sharon to win substantial political advantages within his political house, the Likud, where he must beat Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu in the primaries, and against his external rival, the Labor Party, which is bound hand, foot and soul by the political trap it has fallen into.
The Labor Party will find it hard to find a charismatic leader who can offer the electorate a better, brighter tomorrow than Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. 90 days are too short a time to reorganize a new party leadership. It will also have little chance of preparing a worthy alternative program to the one Sharon has ready.
The prime minister also won many personal credit points among Likud central committee members who are scheduled to convene to choose between him and Netanyahu in the approaching primaries. Electing Netanyahu would meet damaging an incumbent prime minister of their choice, not merely a prime minister. Sharon is “our Arik”, populist and statesman, who reestablished this morning his image as a strong, responsible and trustworthy leader. Can Bibi oust Arik as head of the Likud?
Today’s events were not created yesterday or the day before. The political establishment has been waiting for the Labor Party to quit the government since summer. Since summer, and especially since Likud central committee elections indicated a possible tie between Sharon and Netanyahu, the idea that Sharon would call early elections to a date of his convenience was in the cards. Ben-Eliezer gave him the convenient date last week, and Netanyahu couldn’t block it. Sharon himself, it must be admitted, had all the time in the world to prepare for the latest developments.
As things stand now, he was wise to do so.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 5, 2002