Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[webster groves]

Your choose to defend Sharon based on perceptions of him as a military figure. I choose to criticize him based on his more recent exploits as a politician.

When I heard that Sharon was going to vist the al- Aqsa mosque a few years ago, I thought why the provocation. At least that is certainly the way it would be perceived by the Palestinians.

Sharon didn't make that visit as a soldier, he did it as a politician. and he know exactly what would happen as a result. So did everybody else. The Palestinians reacted very negatively. It was just as if it were scripted, which I think it was. The escalation on both sides resulted in eventual bloodshed, the "peace process" was dead, and Likud was ahead in the polls. Sharon got what he wanted - political control of Israel, and things have just go downhill from there. More Israeilis dead, more Palestinians dead, Land-for-Peace discarded, and support for West Bank "settlers" increased.
But what else happened ? Immigration down, suicide bombers up, reprisals up, assassinations of terrorist leaders up, hatred on both sides way up. Who benefits from this ? Only the political opportunists, who will sacrifice Israel's future for their own personal gain.

-wg